The Resolute Bladelord
by kingsseeker
Summary: After the death of his two companions and friends, the undead Kane travels to the unknown to search for an absolute cure from the curse. However, he didn t expect to find himself in a totally new world. With his knowledge and equipment, he will show his new enemies what true fear is. DkS2/TP-Crossover. Translation of "Der entschlossene Klingenfürst".
1. Intro

For two weeks I sail with my ship across the sea to the north and see neither the Giants nor any land, safe let the chunks of floating ice aside. And when the dawn comes, another day will be added to that period. I am amazed that those bluish glowing cages haven´t extinguished, though I have done nothing for their maintenance. I´d like to ensure that they continue to shine in the future, however, this is a spell I don´t know anything about. Although that magic has similarities with the lost magic of Olaphis, the light itself is completely different than any of those spells. That's why I don't want to take the risk of accidently shorten the lifespan of those spells by trying the complete opposite, their light has already become dim enough. At least I can see more than 300m, thanks to the light emitted from the moon and the stars. Since the sea is pretty stormy today, I am grateful for this sky. I am also grateful that my ship isn't breaking apart, despite being hit by such strong waves, considering the interior was flooded previously. It probably would have sunken down if I hadn't evaporated the water with my Pyromancy. However, it has taken a while, as I did not want to accidentally set the ship ablaze. I have disposed of the ballast, except for some items of from my side and several arms holders. These are now occupied by armours, which have convinced me through their particularly high protection against specific threats. In addition I nailed the arms holders to the wall, so that the armours won't scatter all across the room when the waves become especially violent. Controlling the ship didn´t go smooth in the beginning. It´s not enough just to turn a steering wheel, you have to adjust the sails to the wind direction, which makes it pretty clear that this ship was not designed to be controlled by only one man. Nevertheless, with some effort I was able to ensure that my craft didn´t do a 180 degree turn downwards within the first hour of lifting the anchor.

So I stand in front of the steering wheel fighting the waves when they suddenly stop after some time. From one moment to the next, the sea has become completely calm, not even the tiniest of waves in sight. The light that shines on my ship has become brighter than usual, too. As I look up into the sky, my suspicion has not been confirmed: The moon isn´t coloured in blood-red. I look at the ocean: No sign of a swirl. I remember to the day where the moon took on such a color. At that time, a whirlpool appeared on the sea which was more or less the gateway to Drangeleic. This is not the case today, but unfortunately, there was no wind for the sails either; not even a breeze. Then I hear the cry of an eagle behind me, so I turn around looking into the sky. _He´s still coming back after all those defeats at my hand? If he continues on like that he´ll turn into a hollow, if he hasn´t already become one._ As expected the Giant Eagle carried a person in its claws. However, I did not expect that the person is not my most intrusive tracker, but someone wearing a brown habit. What´s even worse is that this person once asked me to kill other Undead that hadn´t gone hollow yet, even though they didn´t do anything to warrant such a drastic step and he was supposed to still be in the prison build for him by his "vessel". I immediately got into a combat stance, with my left hand I grabbed the curved sword Eleum Loyce, a gift from Alsanna, a child of the dark. With my right hand I grabbed the hilt of the enhanced Katana, I found together with the Armor of the previous owner in the tower at the Centre of the Kingdom of Alken. Shortly afterwards he hit the deck only a few meters in front of me at the edge of the ship in a flexed posture without showing any signs of injury from the fall. Slowly righting, he looks into my eyes. "Why are you here?" His eyes never leave mine as he stands back up: "You sent your minions after me with the intention to kill me. So i thought I simply kill you before that happens." As the moonlight hits his face, its `Vessel`´s lineage from the Fenitos is revealed.

"You work for somebody." "Nonsense. I simply do what the gods granted me to do." "Somebody has released you from that barrier. It´s unlikely that you got free by yourself" He grins at me: "That´s true. It was a hollow. Despite her broken mind, she somehow managed to operate the lever." _Her? She? A woman!_ "Her face was interesting as well. One half had already started to rot while the other half was still normal." He was talking about Lucatiel, no, rather what was left of her. "What did you do to her?" "The same what you do with your victims: I claimed her souls for me."

I should be angry that this parasite killed one of my comrades, no, one of my friends. But since she was already a hollow I feel rather relieved that she doesn´t have to suffer anymore. "You have my thanks for releasing a former comrade from her suffering as a Hollow. But that doesn´t means that I am not going to kill you, now that I have the chance." "Try it, human!" After speaking those words he moves into a combat stance and our fight begins.

Thanks to his deeper voice, I figured out that it wasn´t the "Vessel" that stands before me. I remember our first meeting. I was exploring a mansion, which belonged to Aldia as I found out later. There I found him, sitting on a chair behind a barrier. He covered his eyes with his hands and had very little freedom of movement in his little room. When he saw me, it was the "Vessel" that spoke to me. He begged me to go away and never come back. Shortly thereafter the other personality took over. He told me how he ended up in this situation and how he was created. He then asked me if I am plagued by guilt and memories and if I'm looking for more. I asked him what he meant and why I should help someone who kills people just to demonstrate his power. He asked back, how people like me presume to define what´s good or evil, since he only used what the gods gave him. Finally, he asked me if I intended to kill people in his stead, otherwise he would do it himself and kill even more people. Back then I thought he was just shouting empty threats, because if he could leave his prison, he would have done it so in the first place, so I simply left him to his fate. Shortly after my return from the Throne of Want, I decided to end him before he gets the chance to cause any trouble. But when I arrived at his prison, the barrier was deactivated and he was gone. Since there was no trace of him and I have more pressing matters to attend to, all I could do was to warn every non-hollow that I knew about the lurking threat. After that I returned to my mission, even if the chances of success were less than slim: Tricking the cycle to lift the curse once and for all.

I see him readying his first move, as black ooze starts to form in his hands. _Can he conjure magic without any equipment? This is bad._ At this moment a large wave hits the ship and lets it sway. I was able to find my balance quickly; he however had to stop his channelling of whatever magic he was going to use. _Now!_ I sheath the sword in my right hand and grab the blade on my chest while I use this opportunity and dash to my enemy as fast as I can. I pull the sword from the scabbard I made. The moonlight shines on this blue-green blade, the size of a long dagger and similarly shaped. It was once part of something bigger, but it shattered into pieces last fight… along with its previous owner. As I´m just 2 steps away from him, he managed to regain his balance. I swing my sword … and thrust it between his eyes. Skin, flesh and bones are separated, as my blade pierces through his skull straight into his brain and damages it heavily. His face contorts into a pained grimace and he lets out a short cry before he falls silent. Now he should collapse like any normal being and lay dead on the ground. Unfortunately, it appears he is anything but a normal being. Although I have pierced his head, neither does he drop to the ground nor does he writhe like a dying man should. Instead a large grin appears on his face. On the edge of my vision I see how he produces dark matter in his right hand. I take a huge step backwards, just in time to be out of reach of his dark blast.

I am preparing to attack him again when I notice something strange on the ground. While on the ground itself is nothing, it seems to glow under reddish light. _Reddish light!?_ I turn my head slightly upwards and to the right so as to observe both the sky and my adversary. There I see the source of the red light: the moon. "What is it lad? Are you speechless because your little knife didn´t help you?" I ignore his mockery, because something strange caught my eye: the sea became calm. Not even a small wave can be seen under the dim light of the lanterns. A foreshadowing feeling grows in me, my opponent however seems to be completely unaware of what´s going on. "Where was I again? Oh yes!" he says to himself before starting to, yet again, manifesting dark energy in his hands. With my left hand I reach for the crossbow on my back and aim at his head. Suddenly the ground disappears beneath my feet and I fall. My opponent isn´t fairing much better, with difference being that I can see what the source of our problem is: the ship toppled. _How can that be? There is not a single wave …_ My thoughts are interrupted when I saw the reason for all this: we were in the middle of a whirlpool. It doesn´t take me long to connect the dots. _It begins again. Where will it take me this time?_ I look up, just to see something frightening: the ship has turned itself upside-down and is just a few meters above us. _If the ship travels with us, we will be crushed. Hopefully I regain my consciousness quickly enough so that I´m able to dodge. Will there be enough space for that on the other side? That does not matter at the moment._ I check the position of my ship more precisely and realise what the first thing I need to do, on the other side is: _I have to dodge to the …_

 ** _Edit: Here is a tip for what stuff might happen in the next chapter: The protagonist finds himself in knee-high, warm water_**


	2. Chapter 1: The Awakening

… _right!_ My body did as I told him as soon as I regained control. I rolled to the right and drew my broken blade from the left side of my chest on pure instincts, ready to defend against any attack. It took me some seconds to realize something was wrong. Not only didn´t my ship crash down anywhere, but my surroundings weren´t familiar at all. In front of me is a river that comes from a mountain and is structured like a set of stairs. At the bottom it flows into a lake, in which I´m currently standing. Around the river there are many plants, vines and trees as well as several rocks with strange markings. On the right is a cliff under which the lake flows into an underground river. On the left there is a dirt path surrounded by large cliffs. The most interesting part however is behind me. It also contains a path but there are two people standing on the edge of the small lake.

Both ot them are male and more rurally dressed. The first person on the right was wearing white trousers and a green shirt. Under the shirt you can see part of a wooden colored tunic, on which a tape is wound holding a small bag. On his head he wears a white headband. He has blond, combed-back hair, pronounced black eyebrows and green-blue eyes. His Mustache covers the whole upper lip, except a part between his nose and mouth and part of the lower lip. His goatee consists of stubbles which stands in contrast with the Mustache. In his left hand he carried a sword, which he has drawn from the scabbard on his back. I noticed that even though the sword had a certain quality, it was nothing special. Speaking of quality, that was something the other person was definitely lacking. Much of his clothing consisted of patched clothes or through leather straps held patches. The only exception was the blue leather cover around his waist, which is held by a yellow part of silk. The most noticeable features at his head were his blond-brown hair, blue earrings and his blue iris.

When I looked at their faces I noticed that while they express a little bit of aggression, they looked mostly shocked. What confirmed my guess was the defensive posture of the swordsman. As 5 seconds had passed by I was sure enough that it was okay to put my sword away. In response, the swordsman relaxed his posture but still kept his sword in his hand. "Who are you?" he asked me. "My name is Kane. And yours?" I replied. Both told me their names. The swordsman is called Rusl and the other is named Link. Against my expectations the swordsman still held his sword firmly in hand. _Something must have upset them._ I started asking questions "Did you find me unconscious?" Normally death is the only possible form of unconsciousness for an undead like me, but I remembered that the last time I was swallowed up by a Vortex like this I was also in a state of unconsciousness before I regained my bearings. A look of surprise comes over the swordsman, Rusl. I suspect that he didn´t expect such a banal answer. Finally he answers with a "yes". "Did you see how I arrived here?" This time his partner replied to my question, "Yes, but now please explain how that is possible." "I was unconscious. You have to tell me what happened while I was out cold." Both look to each other, the confusion clear in their faces. Apparently they are trying to come up with an answer. Then the farm boy says to me, while scratching his head: "How shall I put this… I`ll just say what we saw. We were here the entire time and were just about to return to our village with our horse, when suddenly a vortex formed in the spring you´re currently standing in and shortly after it was formed you were spit out by said vortex." _That explains why the swordsman still remains in a combat stance._ With the sentence "Is there anything you want to tell us about this?" he is indirectly asking me to tell them what I know about all of this. And so I did: "Well the last thing that I remember was that I touched a strange altar in a ruin before everything turned white. The next thing I know is waking up here." Both raised their eyebrows and looked at each other. Under normal circumstances, they would probably not believe a word I told them, but what happened beforehand was anything but normal. "Are you really serious?" I answer Rusls question with a nod.

After a short amount of silence he seems to relax completely and puts his sword away. He and his partner walk towards me and he raises his hand in to shake mine as a greeting. "You must be quite confused, right?" He asks with a slight smile on his face. I grasp his hand: "That´s probably over as soon as I have a map or some cartography in my hands." His expression turns serious again: "I´m afraid we don´t have anything like that." "Then I have to explore the area until I find some landmarks that could tell me where I am." "I can take you to Hyrule Town" his partner Link adds, "I have to go there after the third morning anyway. I can drop you at the great library." _Hyrule Town? Hyrule? I´ve never read anything about it, let alone heard from the existence of such place._ "You have a horse?" "Yes. Your arrival spooked her quite a bit and she ran back to the village, but yes I have a horse." "I´m sorry!" "Don´t worry! We were on the way back home anyway.", he responds while offering me his hand. I shook his hand. "How can I show my gratitude?" He seems to be a little surprised that I want to settle my debt so quickly. "Well, there´s always something to do in our village and we could use a helping hand." "What is the name of your village?" "Ordon" _Again a place I never heard of._ "Well…" our conversation was interrupted by Rusl, "…we should hurry back to the village. It is getting dark." The sun glows red as it does during sunrise – or well in this case – at sunset.

We marched back to a narrow path that was surrounded by two cliffs, which leads to a large almost circular area. As soon as we arrive at yet another path that again leads to a large open area Link speaks to me: "I would like to ask you something" "Well?" "Why are equipped with so many different utensils?" And again I had to alter the truth a little bit: "I´m a pilgrim, who explores unknown lands" "So, you found all those objects?" The question came from Rusl "The most of it" was my reply "The rest I scavenged from bandits that tried and failed to rob me." "So you´re well versed with the sword?" Link was the one who asked me that. "Not only with the sword." Was my reply. We arrived at a suspension bridge. As we cross it Rusl notices something: "Are you afraid of heights?" He indicated to my left hand which slides along on the ropes holding the bridge. "No, but I have seen how another bridge like this collapsed from the center outwards. I managed to grab the rest of the rope just in time." "So, you´re afraid of suspension bridges then?" "A little bit."

At the end of the bridge is an open gate made of wood, which is probably more for decoration than to keep someone out, considering the two halves only reach my knees. The rest is a horseshoe-shaped flower decoration above the gate and several vertically-integrated trunks. Two of them are on each side and ensure that the gate covers the entire path when you close it. The two trunks at the end are connected to much thicker stems using several ropes in such a way that the gate stays a foot above the ground. Rusl opens the gate so that we can pass. After we walked through he closed it and connected the two halves of the gate with a rope. We didn´t even take ten steps before I can see yet another gate that looks almost identical to the first one on the left side of the path. Behind the second gate is another spring that looks also a lot like the one I woke up with the strangely marked rocks and the waterfalls, but this time it has only two stages. I can´t help but ask: "What´s with the markings on the rocks?" The one to answer is Rusl: "These rocks stood here for hundreds of years. Nobody remembers what they are for." "However, it is said that they have some form of connection with the springs" notes Link. Rusl then counters: "Of course they have a connection to the springs, considering that there are rocks like these on each spring." We walk along a well-trodden path. To our right is a large rock face, to our left untouched forest. Several steps later we walk into a circular clearing surrounded by rock-faces that has another path on the other side. "That reminds me" Rusl begins "you still need a place to sleep" "He can stay at my house." "If you are ok with that Link." He looks to me: "Are you okay with that?" "Yes" Link looks at me and points to my right: "We are here."

The thing at which he points is a huge tree as large and thick as a tower in which a two-story house was built, the entrance was roughly three meter above the ground. The only way in was a rope ladder. Apart from the decoration under the first roof at the front – a pair of goat horns that hold a green scarf with a white-purple-striped base and a golden triangle in the middle – and the purple tiles it is an ordinary house. "All right, I have to go home. Good night." Rusl said as goodbye. "Good night." "Good night." He walks down the path on the other side of the clearing. While we climb up the ladder, I can´t help but ask: "Why is your house so far away from the village?" He only shrugs "I don´t know either, I wasn´t the one who built this house." He opens the door for me: "Come in!" "Please go on ahead." Even if he seems very kind, I don´t know him long enough to turn my back to him. He looks at me confused, but goes along with my request anyway. "Okay, if you say so."

Now we are inside the house, which can be described as two parts. One part is a circular space that reaches up to the roof and is filled with all the utensils that you expect a farmer to possess: a kitchen, some baskets, light clothing, some gardening tools, several pictures, etc. Two small platforms above us – which seem to work as extra floors – are accessible through two ladders. While the higher one allows access to a window, the lower of the two seems to be a mere step in between. The other part of the house is rectangular and except a ladder to the basement there is nothing worth mentioning. It didn´t take me long to notice that there is something amiss: "Didn´t you say that you don´t possess a map?" At first he didn´t understand what I meant but after a while he seemed to catch on. Both on the ground floor and the first floor there is one bookcase respectively with at least ten books each. "Most of these are blueprints and fairy tales. "Oh, OK." Another thing catches my attention. _Where is the bed?_ Before I can even voice my question I receive the answer. "Here´s your sleeping mat." He gave me a green-colored mat. In his other hand was also a mat. _He only sleeps on a mat!?_ As I took the mat from his hands he asks me a question: "Don´t you want to change into something more … well comfortable?" I still didn´t trust him enough to show vulnerability. "Don´t worry, it´s more comfortable than it looks!" It seems that he didn´t believe me, if his sceptical gaze is any indicator. Nevertheless, he did not ask further as we unrolled the mats and lay down to sleep. But unlike him, I could not sleep. Since I got this curse I didn´t need to sleep. Not even the power of the crowns could change that. When I was sure that he has fallen asleep, I left the house as quietly as possible. Except for the natural sounds of the forest nothing strange happened on my way towards the spring. There I trained and fought imaginary enemies until short before sunrise.

 **Well, this is the current state of my orignal story I translated here.**

 **First thing I want to say is that I´m pretty slow in creating new chapters, so it probably takes months for each new new chapter.**

 **I also want to give a big honorable mention to GintamaFTW, who gave his valuable free-time for the translation of my chapters.**

 **Critic is appreciated as long as it´s not insulting or discrimaniting.**

 **Another thing I want to say is that in future chapters, I might consider changirng the rating to M. Not because of sexual content, but because of a larger scale of violence.**

 **Btw, I forgot to include a tip for what´s happening in the next chapter: A peasant dies on the playground. His place takes a monster.**


	3. Chapter 2: Recurrence of death

*Clack*

The wood broke apart in two parts as I hit it with an axe. Since the first morning after my arrival this was what I was mostly doing: chopping firewood. I did make good work if the mountain of wood-pieces is anything to go by. But even after that I continue. With my left hand I grab another piece of wood and placed it on top of a knee-high rock, while I lift the axe that I had borrowed from the village with my right hand, only to cleave the wood apart with a loud *CLACK*. The village, in which Link and Rusl live, is even for its standards pretty small. The only things it had to offer were a handful of houses and a small farm. The village itself is separated by a small river, which became smaller the closer it got to the farm.

Thanks to the small size of this community I was able to get to know the inhabitants and their connections among each other pretty fast. Rusl is married to a woman called Uli, who is pretty far into a pregnancy. They already have a son named Colin, whose facial structure and blond hair definitely came from his mother. Link on the other hand wasn´t married yet, but apparently has a very close relationship to a girl called Illya, who happened to be the daughter of the major. Her hair was a lighter shade of blonde than Link´s, but I find myself unable to determine from which parent she inherited it considering her father was bald and her mother is long since gone. Her father Bo is a well-fed man with a cow-bell necklace and a grey moustache, which was shaved of between mouth and nose. In spite of his looks he seems to be a very competent major, even though he doesn´t seem to be very interested in building defensive-structures for the village, reason being that its remoteness is a good protection by itself.

*CLACK*

That was the last piece of wood I had to cut apart. As I look over to the entrance of the farm, in which the villagers take care of their goats, I notice that I´m not the only one who looks in that direction. I can spot Illya looking out of her house. Her shoulders are covered with a piece of leather that was connected to a cyan necklace. That piece of leather was stitched to a dress using cyan strings. The dress was decorated with various vines and stars that were stitched into the dress. Her pants were a light brown and on her left leg there was a little pocket. After 10 seconds, Epona came through the gate. Except for her white mane Epona´s fur was a red-brown color. In her saddle Link was sitting with a relaxed posture. Unlike Illya, I didn´t dash towards Link. She greets him and asks how his day was. To which he replies with a "Completely normal" "Did you finish your work?", I ask. "Yes! How was your day?" "Not that much different than yours, but if I remember correctly, today is the day of our departure." "That´s right! Are you nervous?" "That´s not my first journey." He looks behind me: "We can talk later. I have to discuss some things."

I turn around. In front of Illya´s house is the major himself. "Good day to both of you." "Good day", Link and I said at the same time. He looks at me: "I´d like to talk to Link in private if you wouldn´t mind." "Of course!" Link already dismounted Epona and walks towards the major. So while they talk about something that is uninteresting for me, I walk towards Epona. I stroke her white mane: "Hello girl. Today is the day for our first and maybe last ride together." "Don´t scare her like last time though." Illya looks at me in a slightly accusing way. When we first met she scolded me for scaring Epona. I noticed that what she said didn´t match to what really happened, so I came to the conclusion that Link and Rusl didn´t tell the entire truth regarding my arrival. Of course I apologized to both her and Epona. _I find enough enemies as it is so I shouldn´t actively try to make more._ She looks at Epona and pets her back, "Look after those two, will you? It´s a long way until you reach the capital."

She pets her right side as she notices something: "What´s this?!" She looks at Epona´s right leg, which is slightly swollen. I guess it happened yesterday when Link had to bring the children back to the village when they chased a monkey. Illya looks at Link, who together with Bo had heard her outcry and was looking towards us, with a rather angry expression: "What´s this supposed to mean Link? Epona is injured!" His answer is just a rather startled expression, which Illya didn´t seem to like one bit. So while Illya scolds Link for his recklessness I decide to look at the swelling a little closer. Apparently she hit something hard while sprinting. _The worst case would be that the swelling gets even bigger. The warm water of the spring should help to reduce the swelling._

But as soon as I grab the strap, I immediately draw attention towards me: "Where do you think you´re going?!" Now Illya stands right in front of me with her arms on her hips. "I take her to the spring. The water there should help with the swelling." That doesn´t seem to be enough for her: "I decide what to do with her, not you!" "Well in that case: Can I please take care of her to make up for scaring her the first time we met?" Her angry expression softens and she removes her hand from her hips. She sighs: "Good! But don´t you make me regret it!" "Got it!"

I knew how pain stilling warm water could be. However, the swelling receded far faster than I expected. I took some time to get pass the children that forget to step aside for Epona and me because they were arguing about the incident yesterday. In the meantime I would have recovered my equipment, if I hadn´t already done so. Instead I had to call for their attention three times in a row until they finally noticed me. I stroke Epona`s mane again and look towards the entrance of the spring: "Are they still arguing or what´s going on?" I´m here since roughly five minutes ago and still wait for someone to come and tell me something about our scheduled departure. "It seems that we have to remind them that we have an important journey planned for today."

But as soon as we reach the entrance of the spring I hear the sound of hooves in the distance. It came from the rope bridge. As I look over to it I´m able to make out the source of the sound: A group of boars with brown fur, roughly one and a half time my height and impressive tusk´s are charging towards the village. On top of each of them there are two green-skinned, humanlike creatures who are only reaching my shoulders in terms of height. They all wear the same clothing: A grey fur-tunic, an orange-brown leather-cap that covers the entire head except for their horns, black pants, a belt with a skull as belt buckle, shoes made out of a piece of cloth and a blue mouthpiece that reaches from their necks towards the middle of their face.

As I notice how Epona tries to force me to let go of her, I release her from my grip. It´s not like she would be able to help me fight in an environment like this, considering that the boars look far more powerful than her and a speed advantage would be pointless on this narrow path. As soon as the first boar crosses the bridge, the archer on the back ready´s his bow and shoots an arrow directly at me. Now I´m certain that they are only interested in killing. I catch the arrow with my right hand, use my left to grab my crossbow and fire a bolt at them. It hits the boar right in between the eyes and it collapses immediately. Because of the speed it was going it rolled over throwing the archer of its back and towards me. The rider manages to hold on but only ends up getting crushed by the dead animal. When the archer was only a couple of inches away from me I stab him with his own arrow straight into his head. He dies immediately.

That's all the time I got to examine the dead before another boar was running at me. This time the one in the back had a club instead of a bow. The distance between me and the boar was too small to reload my crossbow. So I roll to the right into the spring, to evade the animal. As I look up I see the group riding towards the village, while I reload my crossbow. I consider using my pyromancy on them but quickly decide against that idea. The forest might catch fire and then it could even spread towards the village.

As soon as I make this decision, three boars block the entrance of the spring. The ones in the back are armed with bows that which they are currently aiming at me. _If they time their attack it´s going to be incredibly difficult to get out of here unharmed._ Since they growl and snarl at me they must have seen the corpses of their comrades. _Maybe I can use their anger to my advantage._ I draw my broken blade and wait for them to make the first move, with the intention to find an opening for my counterattack.

But that never happens. Instead I see a heavily armoured rider behind them on top of a just as heavily armoured blue boar. He is twice the size of the others, even bigger than me. He is the only one that leaves the lower half of his face uncovered which allows me to see his green, bloated face. His horns are also more prominent than those of the others. On his back is an axe almost as big as he and in his right hand is a colored horn. His mount does not only possess much larger tusks than the others but also has two big horns that come out under its ears. All those differences between him and the others make it clear that he is probably the leader of those creatures.

Like the others he also seems to have noticed what I did, if the grim look he sends my way is anything to go by. But then his focus is drawn away and he looks around. Since the archers are still aiming at me, I don´t see a chance to fire my crossbow at him. Then he takes the horn in his mouth and blows. I focus on the archers expecting them to attack but nothing happens. Neither the archers nor the riders react to that signal. _What is going on?_ After he put the horn away again he grunts while pointing his finger at me before he rides towards the village.

It seems this was the order to attack me. The boars move in my direction while increasing the gap from each other in an attempt to surround me. I slowly walk backwards to prevent that from happening while I focus on the archers. I probably can kill one with a headshot, but surely not all three. The pair in the middle is coming straight at me, so the archer has to lean to the right to shoot me. That means that he can´t shoot at my right side without changing his position. After recognizing that all I had to do was to dodge the archer on my left side while I took out the one in the middle. With that my plan was complete.

I aim at the one on my right and fire a bolt. Without checking if the bolt hit or not I roll to the left side of the boar in the middle. I hear how an arrow is fired as well as a body hitting the ground, but I don´t feel any pain. _So far it looks good._ I put my crossbow away and pierce the skull of the archer on the middle boar by jumping towards him and ramming my broken blade in his temple. While the rider on the right grunts some orders, I had already pulled the one in front of me off his boar and decapitated him.

Following the orders of the rider on the right side the pair on the left moved their boar towards my original position so that they could aim at me. In the meantime the one on the right had his boar charge towards me. As he gets closer I notice that the boar is going lightly to my left, which means that he tries to prevent me from taking cover behind the boar I just rid of its riders. So I remain where I am, catch the arrow aimed for my head, shoot the rider with my crossbow and throw the arrow like a throwing-knife towards the archer. To my right I can hear the boar crashing into a wall, its rider is lying on the ground with his head twisted in an unnatural angel. Apparently the crash broke his neck.

My victory is short lived as I can hear the group that went towards the village returning. Shortly after I can see them riding back to the rope-bridge, but this time something is different: They took the children. _Why are they kidnapping the children?_ Not like I can do anything against it. They rode by far too quick for me to shoot them with my crossbow without endangering the children and if I got too close, they´d simple run me over. After the last of them left my field of vision I run towards the village.

As I arrive at Links house I see what happened to him. On the path before me lies his head, his eyes wide and unseeing. The rest of his body is directly before my feet. To my left I see Rusl, he was in the middle of wrapping bandages around the head of an unconscious Illya. He himself had a deep wound on his stomach that had yet to be treated.

"Rusl!" It seems that he noticed my arrival just now: "Kane?! You´re alive?!" I point towards Links corpse: "Who did this? Was it that heavily armoured rider?" As far as I had seen he was the only one with a bladed weapon. Rusl looks at me: "Where do you know him from? How are even ali-""I was in the spring and saw him riding towards the village. I killed those that stayed behind to fight me. Now answer my question." He answers with a quick "Yes!" "Treat your wounds. I´m heading out." He doesn´t look too happy with what I just said: "What do you want to do?" "I´m gonna try to save your children. And when I meat the leader of this group again I will cut off his head." He doesn´t look convinced: "Are you mad? You don´t stand a chance alone!" I turn around and begin walking away "In the times were I was outnumbered I fought far stronger enemies. My health should be the least of your worries."

I take out my mask and look at it. It's a face with prominent beard and striped eyes. A memento of a good friend of mine. I place the mask on my face and can feel that a new chapter in my life is about to start.

 **Omg that was long. I should shorten my checkpoints for each chapter.**

 **Anyway, I´m happy to bring a new chapter out way before my personal deadline (6 months).**

 **But there is something that really bothers me: There is a lack of characters from dark souls 2 to choose from when creating a new fanfiction. A shame really, as I would rather have "royal sorcerer navlaan" and "bearer of the curse" in my list instead of "Rusl" and "OC".**

 **Speaking of lists: Our beloved Kane will meet many characters of the TP universe. I would like to know which meeting you are most excited of.**

 **Here´s a list of characters he will probably meet:**

 **Zelda**

 **Zant**

 **Ganondorf**

 **Prinz Ralis**

 **Midna**

 **Renaldo**

 **Goron chief/elders**

 **Light spirits**

 **"Resistance group"**

 **There will also be a few characters from Dark Souls 2:**

 **Royal Sorcerer Navlaan**

 **The Forlorn**

 **Last but not least, here is the next tip for chapter 3: The one eye sees, the other doesn´t.**

 **Edit: I just recognized that there is something called "Poll" for such things. I will open one on my profile immediately.**


	4. Chapter 3: Change and adaptation

As I returned to the spring, I see the three boars drinking its water. I go towards the one closest to me and mount it. It shows no resistance against his new rider but only moves in a trot. As soon as we go to the path with the rope bridge, I see something very unpleasant: On the other side of the bridge one of the green-skinned creatures tries to cut the ropes. _I have to do something quickly!_ I kick into the sides of my ride. It stands up on his two rear legs and if I hadn´t fixed my legs on its back to hold on I would have fallen out of the saddle. But at least now it started running.

The saboteur notices the fast approaching danger and starts to hit one of the ropes rapidly in a fit of panic. As I reach the middle of the bridge the rope is almost cut down. I realize that I won´t make it if I don´t do something. I take on a stable position without removing my legs from the back of my ride. But when I notice that he´s about to land the last swing I abandon my plan to shoot him with my crossbow. Instead I get ready to jump.

The rope gets cut apart. _It´s a real shame that I couldn´t keep the boar._ I dive towards safe ground while the boar falls into the abyss. The saboteur runs towards me, axe ready to strike. I roll towards him and draw my crossbow. Still on the ground I pull the trigger and take another life. I pull the bolt out of his skull and use to it reload my crossbow before I put said crossbow back to its place.

Then I notice two rather unsettling things: The sky had turned dark and no ten steps away from me is a magic-barrier. I guess that it´s hexcraft, considering everything except the dark-yellow sides and strange symbols is black. The symbol in the middle looks like a keyhole with an eye inside of it, the other symbols look like scribbles. Carefully I touch the barrier. It feels as hard as rock, but also has a strange tingly sensation. I push with both hands but nothing happens. Seeing no other options I get ready to swing at the barrier.

Suddenly a dark grey hand grasps me by the throat. Immediately I try to draw my broken sword, but the hand pulls me through the barrier before I have the chance. _That's also a way to get through._ When I arrive on the other side I finally see the body of the one who pulled me through the barrier. The being in front of me possess some human traits, except its stance being slightly bend forward and its extremely long arms. Its entire body is covered with tattoos that glow red. There where its head should be was a shield-like ornament that has two large spikes at the top corners and three cuboids at the bottom. Its hair is as thick as branches, with the ones above the head are formed like hooks while the ones underneath are pointed like spikes. The ornament has an eye-like decoration in the middle with the main difference being that the iris is on the outside instead of around the pupil. Except for the upper part, the eye is surrounded by thick lines that start from the bottom and move upwards in an S-form. The other decorations are lines with some right-angles in between.

While it wasted the element of surprise by studying me, I take a look at my surroundings. Looking with my left eye everything looks like when I first arrived here. With my right eye however I see some clear differences. Everything is illuminated by a gloomy yellow light that distorts far away objects. Even the sky is the same yellow color, while the clouds are completely black. Out of the ground small black squares rise slowly upwards.

Luckily my opponent doesn´t have any allies nearby. I swing with my blade at his wrist. Now that its tendons are cut the hand around my throat opens and I drop to the ground. As soon as I hit the ground the creature swings at me with its other arm, intent to tear me apart with its claws. I step forward so that the claws won´t hit me. At the same time I put my blade in a reverse grip and position it so that it will hit the creature's still intact wrist. With the loss of the control of both its arms my opponent tries to ram me with its head. I pull my blade out and take a large step to the side. As it passes by I turn sharply to the right and drive my blade into the side of its neck. It raises its head but before it can do anything else I place my foot on its back and pull my blade through its neck.

While my opponent collapses on the ground and I sheath my sword, I start to feel strange. Suddenly the corpse of my foe explodes into many black squares. For a moment they hover were the body was lying before they dissipate. _What the…?_ The strange feeling turns into pain, that starts mild but gets worse at a fast pace until its almost unbearable. It feels like my body is dissolving. _I need to get out of here!_

I run towards the barrier. As I arrive, I start punching against it. Nothing happens and the pain continues to get worse. If I weren´t used to immense amounts of pain this agony would have destroyed my mind. As I thought it couldn´t get worse the pain started to recede only to be replaced by a cold shiver that travels from my head all the way down to my toes. Afterwards I feel like I´ve almost died from blood loss. My vision is blurry and my feet feels like they are about to give up under my weight. I sway from side to side before I lose my balance…

I use my right arm to lift my body up from the ground. _This isn´t the right time to hold a nap! Not under these circumstances!_ I listen for any approaching creatures, ready to deliver an uppercut to any enemy that should get near me. But nothing happens. Slowly I start to regain control over my body.

As my vision clears I´m able to see what happened to me: My right arm turned completely black. Not even my armor is visible, as if it dissolved. Instead I see white-gold glowing lines that look like veins on my entire arm. As I look down on myself I see that the rest of my body took on the same appearance. Even my weapons vanished. Then I notice something in the left edge of my vison. _What happened to my arm?!_

As if the changes weren´t enough my left arm up to my shoulder seemed to be completely gone. In its place there were many branch like stubs that resembled some kind of a bush. They too are black, but they seem to be glowing a bit brighter than the rest of my body. The lines on my left shoulder took on the form of a Vortex and in my right palm the lines formed an eye-tattoo. _How did I miss this?_

Even though my left arm is gone it doesn´t feel like it`s gone. I look where my arm used to be. When I try to close my left hand some of the branches would move. If I try other movements, like raising my hand, other branches move or the same ones move again but in a different direction. Then I realise something. _Oh joy!_

I´m standing here with only one arm and no weapons. The number of questions is also steadily increasing: _Where did that creature come from? Why did seemingly nothing change even though my artificial eye shows me completely different surroundings?_ I look around in hopes of finding a stick that won´t break after one swing. No such luck.

I focus on the eye-tattoo inside my palm. It has to be good for something. _Give me something! And if it´s a small shield!_ As if that was some form of secret phrase something starts to form in my hand. At first its silhouette looks like that of a mask that had a spike on top of it. But I recognise that it was a shield, one like the guardians of the Throne of Want used. As soon as I finish that thought the silhouette turns into just that shield. _Is this real?_ I turn it around to inspect it. It feels and looks just like the one I remember except for two things: First of it`s connected to the eye-tattoo by some sort of light-string, second it seems to be completely weightless. It feels like there is nothing in my hand.

Am I able to summon any weapon I remember? I picture a halberd, one like the hollows in the outpost-ruins used. The shield vanishes with a bright light, but no halberd appeared. _That´s strange._ I try to find an explanation why it didn´t appear. Then I try again. This time I focus on the weapons of the beings whose soul remained solid even after their death. I picture the sword of the Pursuer. In my palm another glowing object materializes, which turns out to be the massive blade I had focused on and just like with the shield it seems to be weightless. I swing the weapons a few times. The weapon is for its size so fast that every swing creates a small shockwave. _That compensates for my missing arm just great._

Now that I know the extent of the changes, my focus returns to my goal: To find the children and their kidnappers. I was following the trampled patches of grass when I noticed something: In the spring, which brought me into this world, were four creatures just like the one I just killed. At the far side of the spring was a giant glowing ball of light, which was held by an even bigger black hand with glowing red markings. In front of the ball one of the creatures held a staff with a black-red crystal at the end, its upper half turned around its own axis in a right-angle. As far as I can see from the backline, its wearer doesn´t wear any hear. Instead there are two big, obelisc-like stubs that point to each other at the end. Even though I´m close enough to see so many details the creatures have yet to notice me, which is probably because they aren´t looking in my direction.

While I sneak up to the one wielding the staff, I think back to the Skeleton Lord that wielded a scythe. With the scythe in hand I sneak up to my opponent until he is just in front of me. In an instant I have my scythe positioned in front of his neck and put my right foot on his back. While he still comes to terms with his current situation I prepare my interrogation: "Make a sound and you´re dead, make a move and you´re dead, make…" Suddenly he starts to scream and tries to turn around. With my right foot I shove him forward and my scythe severs his head like a guillotine.

Thanks to his scream the other creatures notice my presence. They surround me, cutting off any escape route, while also being able to attack me from all sides. I raise my scythe and turn in a circle, pointing it at my enemies: "That´s your final warning! I fought far stronger opponents than you."

Maybe it´s because they don´t understand me or they simply don´t care, but nevertheless they continue to get closer to me. I understand their intention and plan an attack that should get me out of their encirclement. But before I can do anything black pillars with red markings fall out of the sky and dig themselves, in regular intervals, into the ground. Then they connect themselves with each other through some kind of barrier, which creates an almost round arena. But that doesn´t stop me from charging at my opponents I´m trapped with now.

 **Now that we have finished the transformation, I think it´s time for me again to give my two cents.**

 **First of all, I´m pretty surprised that nobody minded how I just killed Link in the previous chapter. I expected some mean comments when I continued the story that way, but I had to do it or else it would be too complicated for me to give them both a good spotlight. Not that i´ve really showed Link´s departing in a really good spotlight, but this way I´m able to focus on the main character.**

 **If anyone gets worried that every charakter they like will die: I won´t kill everyone like a fly. It won´t be the next Game of Thrones, Akame ga kill, Berserk or Attack on Titan, though not every character that is not a villain will make it out alive.**

 **Before I come to the tip for the next chapter: What do you think about the transformation? Is it cool? Is it generic? Is it overpowered? Does it make sense?**

 **Now to the next tip: A heavy-looking helmet that covers too little of the face to be efficient.**


	5. Chapter 4: A search for answers

**Surprise! For once there´s an author´s note at the beginning of the text. Why? Because I have closed the poll and show you the summary now. So lets begin:**

 **The winner of the poll is Midna with 100% of the votes... or should I say 1 of 1 votes?**

 **Yeah... I guess that my poll was either stupid or the people reading my fanfiction was too low. Either way, I decided to thank the one person who voted and delaying further polls in the future.**

 **Whatever, have fun reading the chapter.**

Even though I have no idea of the origins of this new ability of mine, its usefulness can´t be denied. As I dodge the swing of my enemy I position my scythe at his neck. With a single swing his head comes off. As it falls to the ground, I hear one of his comrades closing up on me. I look behind me to discern the distance between us and swing my scythe at his head. The tip pierces his neck which cases him to groan lightly. He tilts his head in a position where I can´t pull my weapon through his neck without getting blocked by his hard skull. While it prevented me from cutting all the way through, the blade had already cut through quite some flesh. On all fours he jumps towards me with the intent to crush me with his head. I dodge by sidestepping to the left while I let my hand glide closer towards the blade of my weapon. Shortly afterwards I turn the scythe 180 degrees and yank it out of the back of his neck. As his body falls to the floor I charge towards the last enemy at the left.

Before I reach him he does something that caught me completely by surprise: He releases a blood curling scream that causes me to instinctively cover my ears. I fight against the reflex, reason being that with only one hand I can´t cover both of my ears nor would that be a favourable position while an enemy is right in front of me. As I finally regain control over my instincts I notice that my opponent made the same mistake as the very first of their kind that I encountered: He wasted his chance to attack me. Silence is the only thing that remains after I cut off his head.

But I notice something strange: The corpse isn´t disappearing like the first one. But it doesn´t stop there. As I turn around I see dark-red lightning coming out of the barrier that somehow resurrected my defeated opponents. Even the heads were reattached. As I take a closer look I notice something: the one I wanted to interrogate had different markings on his head than his comrades. Most of it was a silvery color. In the middle were two lines that started at the bottom and moved upwards in a helix like pattern towards a ring that they surrounded in a half-circle. Around his head were many rectangular growths that caused his head to look like a gear, if you ignored the obelisk-like spikes at the top.

I imagine the Barbed Club and it appears at my hand. Considering that those pillars are seemingly capable of resurrecting my enemies, my first course of action should be to destroy them. I swing my weapon at the nearest pillar, which in turn splinters into many square pieces. But instead of dropping to the ground, they float in the air for a short time before reassembling into their original form. _Damn it, what should I do?_ The lightning stopped and my formerly dead opponents were starting to move again. But I notice that the last one wasn´t revived like the others. _Maybe…_

"Maybe you should finish them all at once. Just a guess." I look up to where I heard that distorted voice came from. On top of a branch was a being I never encountered before. She is with her gear – a stone helm, which had its visor largely destroyed to the point where it only covered her forehead and a single eye – only a third as tall as I was without any of my equipment and had a yellow-orange ponytail. I assume the she is a female because of the form of her body and feminine voice, even if those characteristics don´t always apply. Her skin is a mix between light-grey and black fur, her limps were covered in green glowing symbols. The part of her helmet that covers her eye resembles an eye, with its pupil and iris slightly more highlighted than the edge. Above her head the helmet takes on a U-shape, of which the ends curl inward with multiple right-angles. Two thick lines travel down on those protrusions and meet at the middle in a U-shape. The remaining scribbles are seemingly only decoration. But the strangest part is that I can only see her with my artificial eye, while on my real one she only appears as a shadowy silhouette.

Nonetheless I decide to try to take her advice, considering it isn´t all that different from my own idea. While the two with the simple ornament-heads are charging at me the, the special one at the back tries to get his staff back. _As if I´d allow you to perform your sorcery._ I imagine one of those shields used by the brassmade guardian golems and charge at him with shield raised high. The other two try to block my way but I simply tackle them to the side and continue onward. Just as he grabs his staff I´m close enough to attack while I grab my shield carefully at the sharp edge. What follows is a vertical cut through his neck which results in an instant death.

I look back to the remaining two. They regained their bearings surprisingly fast and are already running towards me. I notice that both of them will reach me at the same time so I simply wait for that to happen. They jump towards me, with each one swinging their arms at me. As they are only two armlengths away I turn and swing my shield at them. Arms and necks are cut apart and fly past me while the rest of the bodies collapse. This time they dissolve into tiny squares but don´t disappear immediately.

The being with the stone helmet is a different story, considering that she is no longer on the tree branch above me. As I turn around to look for her I see her floating right in front of my face her arms crossed. "Surprised?" I would answer that question if I knew what she meant: That she is so close to my face? That she can float? That the environment looks different on one eye than on the other? There are so many things to be surprised about.

I ignore her question in favour of asking one myself: "What´s your name?" She looked surprised for a moment: "That´s the first thing you ask about?" "Yes" She looks at me with her one eye sceptically while answering: "That´s none of your concern!" "Then a nickname." "Is there something wrong with your ears!?" "I have to call you something." Then she does something that surprises me yet again: Her hair grows longer and takes on the shape of a hand, which she uses to point at me. "Don´t be bold! If I hadn´t said anything you would have been done for." "I´m grateful for your help, but I still don´t know what to call you." She growls at me, only to then direct a wicked smile my way. Thanks to that I notice another detail about her: One of her upper canines teeth is twice as large as the other teeth and was slightly in front of the others.

"Maybe I tell you if you do what I say!" My patience is slowly growing thin: "Then speak up! I´m in the middle of a rescue-mission and have to find those horned bandits before their trace..." I look around hectically. _The trail! Where is the trail!?_ The footprints of the boars mingled with the ones made by my deceased enemies but none of them continue towards the path that doesn´t lead back towards the village. As I turned back towards the being she had taken on the form of Ilya and spoke to me: "You truly are a great savior. Why don´t you look up for a moment?" I do what she says and look into the sky to see the manifestation of more questions: A giant black spot, in which a cyclone leading into nothingness resides. The edge of the spot was a strange combination of right-angles and squares while the rest of it was decorated with red lines, which also moved around in right-angles, safe for the the round ones inside the cyclone.

"To answer your previous question: I want that you find something for me." "And what is it that I should find for you?" "You´ll know soon enough, light-dweller!" Light-dweller?! Suddenly I remember that something could come out of that portal in the sky. Considering that this cyclone managed to teleport a group of those beings away it should also be able to teleport just as many to my position. At least the pillars vanished back into the portal. "What´s about that portal in the sky?" "Can´t you guess? Think harder!" My patience has now entirely worn out: "If you don´t want to answer my questions clearly, get out of my way." I walk past her towards the path on the left side of the spring.

"Don´t you want to know who´s responsible for all of this?" I look back at her: "I don´t need any more questions! I need answers!" She smiles that wicked grin of hers "Hehehe. So that's how it is.", she crosses her arms, "You want answers? Very well, I can bring you to a person that can give you just that." "Then let your words follow actions!" She turns to the remains of my enemies and snips her fingers. The squares fly towards the portal with incredible speeds and turn the red lines into… green lines. _Are you kidding me?_

It does appear she isn´t quiet finished yet. She picks up the staff of the magician. With her hair she rips the red-black crystal of the staff and crushes it. After that she looks towards me: "Are you going to stand there the entire time or start moving over here?" I walk towards her until I´m just a step away from her. "Don´t move!" I do as she says even if I´m extremely wary of what´s going to happen. Normally I don´t trust anyone that easily, but I´m ready to take the risk of a potential ambush for a chance of finding the answers for my questions. _If she tries to betray me, I´ll just kill her._

Once she starts to focus I can feel a small tingling sensation that starts atop of my head and travels down through my entire body. At the upper edge of my vision I see the cause for this sensation: My forehead dissolves into small black squares that float towards the sky. Before I know it everything around me went dark, only to be then replaced by a giant landscape. At least for my real eye. The only thing I can see in the distance with my artificial eye is a yellow-black fog that covers everything that is too far away. Thanks to the walls and towers I know that this is a castle of some sort. An outpost or even a fortress usually has flat rooftops, which is not the case here. I´m currently on top of a large stone wall that seems to be damaged at some points. At my left is a tower, while at my right the bridge I stay on is destroyed. At the end is a small bluish glowing flame, for my real eye it looks like a soldier. He is shaking and looks into the distance. The most noticeable features are his iron helm, the chainmail and his spear, which he uses to support his weight.

My 'tour guide' noticed that I was mustering the solider: "That poor guard isn´t the person I mentioned before." "I hope I don´t have to search the entire castle for this person." "We´d be there already if you would complain less and walk more!" At our left is another giant stone bridge wall that has many huge breaches. At some parts it seems to have collapsed completely, creating great gaps between the different sections. The building we are headed to is five meters away and can be reached with a small wooden plank that is located beneath the guard.

As I step on the wooden construct it groans under my weight. The guard noticed that of course and turns around. _Damn it!_ His face is a mix between surprise and fear. "M-M-M-Monster!" In his fear induced panic he doesn´t notice that he´s backing away right towards the edge of the wall. _Is he an ally or an enemy? Should I save him or leave him to his fate?_ "He´s going to fall!", the tone of my companion was slightly panicked. Said tone was what allowed me to make my decision. When he stepped over the ledge and started to fall backwards I ran straight towards him and grabbed his chainmail. With a single swing I pull him up and release him on the ground.

Not understanding that I just saved him, he looks around for help. Since I´m on unknown ground I want to remain as unnoticed as possibly. So I grab him and lift him off the ground, his feet dangling in the air. "P-Please d-don´t!" is all he manages to stutter out. "Shhhh!" I bring him closer towards me to whisper into his ear: "No word about me! To no one! At any time! Is that clear?!" "Y-Yes!" "Good! Don´t give me a reason to hunt you down!" With that sentence I drop him to the ground. He uses this opportunity to scramble away. In his haste he forgot two things: His spear and a purple rupee that fell out of his pocket when he hit the ground. It is a purple, hexagon shaped crystal but in my time in Ordon I learned that this was the currency in this world. _Hopefully I was intimidating enough._ "Can we move on now?!" You said you were in a hurry after all!" I take both the spear and the rupee from the ground. "Let´s go" was my short answer. As soon as we reach the middle of the wooden bridge she asks me something: "What did you say to him anyway?" "That he better keeps his mouth shut!"

 **And so another chapter ends. I´m pretty sure most of you know who this mysterious being with the strange helmet is, so I start asking you how you like that iteration of her and if I nailed her character. I know that my iteration doesn´t hold a candle compared to the one of the fanfiction "Precedent" from reathai, but I want to avoid creating an OOC.**

 **Another thing I want to speak about is that I don´t really know the quality of my fanfiction. In most fanfictions, there is usually one guy in the comment section who explains in detail all the mistakes one did with his/her fanfiction. I don´t really know if that is a good or a bad sign, as sometimes I have the feeling that I could have done something better.**

 **Now that all this is out of my chest I just go to the next tip: Even written paper can be a powerful tool.**


	6. Chapter 5: The elucidation

I´ve seen many of those black birds in the sky, who seem to be unnaturally big. Now that I see one of them sitting on the edge of the castle wall it shows that my eyes were not deceiving me: that bird is roughly as big as a grown man. I jump from the wooden bridge onto the wall. The bird hears my landing and turns its head around. From up close I notice that its grey body is covered in black lines. The most noticeable feature is its head, which looks like it's in the inside of its throat, and consists only of a red glowing dot. The head is connected to a web of red lines, and the edges are simply parts of the neck that surround it. This causes me to wonder if that really is the birds head or if something cut it off.

"Do all birds here look like they were beheaded?" the question was directed to my companion, who was still busy inspecting that Rupee I got from that guard. Considering I currently had only one hand, having to carry both that rupee and my spear would have been quite the hassle during a fight. She promptly suggested that she could carry the first for me. Even though skeptical I accepted her offer. She made the staff, which she took from that dead sorcerer, disappear with nothing but a snap of her fingers. The staff dissolved into many black squares. She looked rather disturbed at my question: "What disgusting things are you thinking about?! The twilight is what changed them." "The twilight?" She sighed: "Haven´t you wondered why the sky looks so different?" _Now that I know what changed it, the only question of how remains._

The strange bird started flapping its wings. I run down the path atop of the wall and turn around a corner, only to see another one of those birds. At the end of the path I see a suspension bridge without railing. Time already started to leave its marks: the wood planks were slightly decayed, and at some points looked like something chewed on them. While that wasn´t necessarily dangerous, it was still easily visible.

I hear the first bird approaching from behind me. I turn my head to look back, only to see it flying towards me with its claws positioned to tear into my body. Just what I needed: Giant, human eating birds. I turn around and thrust my spear into his torso with so much force that the tip and a bit of the shaft stick out of its back. His comrade is seemingly unfazed by this development, considering I can still hear him approach me from behind. This one is, like apparently all of them, pretty fast; a look over my shoulder tells me that much. Since it's too late to pull the spear out, I let go of it and make a step behind the still falling corpse. I grab the spear just under its tip and spin around to ram it into the neck of the second bird.

Since no other birds want to attack me I continue my walk towards the bridge. Now that I´m close enough I notice that the wedges on this side are dangerously loose. That wouldn´t be much of a problem if I had both hands. Instead I´m left with no other choice but to ask for help: "When the bridge crashes could you help me to climb up?" "Huh? What are…" she starts to say, but then stops suddenly to let out a sigh: "It seems that I have to do everything myself sometimes! Stay still." _Did she notice the condition of the wedges as well?_

As soon as she had said her last word, her hair started to grow and take on the shape of a hand, which was easily big enough to grab me like I was a doll, something she made apparent immediately. Only now I realize that this is more than just a cheap trick. No matter what advantages' grabbing an enemy has, the risks are just as big if the opponent defends himself. The worst case is the loss of a limb, and the size of the limbs only reduces that risk. But if you were to use your hair, you would only lose your hair, negating most of the risk of loosing very important body parts.

But regardless of that my situation is anything but ideal: I can barely move thanks to her strong grip. Yet again I put too much trust in her just to get my answers. Now it will show on which side she stands: either she throws me across the bridge or into the depths beside the wall. She groans in concentration as she pulls her hand back. With a small roar I´m thrown towards the other side of the bridge. After some seconds of flight my back smashes into the crenellation.

While I climb back to my feet I notice that my impact formed a small crater. My spear got the worst of it: it had broken in two pieces and was now quite useless to me. My company floats over the gap, without needing to touch the bridge. "Was that your first time throwing someone?" She isn´t very happy about my question: "You don´t get to complain, considering you were too scared to cross a bridge without railing." _So that´s what she thought, huh?_ I walk towards the edge of the bridge and stomp on one of the planks. The wedges on the other side come loose and the bridge falls down. "The wedges weren´t lodged into the ground properly. That's why I didn´t want to cross the bridge."

I saw her slightly shocked face at that revelation, but she composed herself quickly: "She is here in that tower. Hurry up!" _So the person she mentioned before is a woman? Interesting._ The aforementioned tower could be entered through a window that I could only reach by jumping onto a small roof. The only problem was that it was quite a ways down. If I manage to land on the other side of the roof I could slide down towards the wooden balcony and lessen the force of the impact by quite a lot. I take some steps back, run towards the edge… and jump!

* * *

Finally, inside the tower I find myself on top of a staircase. "Do I go up or down?" "Up!" is the response from my companion. At the top of the stairs is a two winged iron door, but without a lock. I carefully open the right side by pressing my body against it, all the while keeping an eye on the left side of the room. This allows me to defend myself against attackers on the left side while the door prevents anyone from attacking from the right side. The first thing I notice inside of the room is a long bench, which had two books and a picture frame on top of it. From this angle I can´t make out what´s on the picture. Beside the bench is a four-poster bed with a small stool in front of it. On the other side of the bed were flags mounted on the walls, that all depicted a strange symbol: A bird whose head was composed of three triangles, which formed the silhouette of a bigger triangle. After two of those flags came a big window, through which a cloak covered person was looking into the distance. Beside the person was, after another set of those flags, an already fired chimney.

After I made sure that no one was hiding behind the right side of the door I start walking towards the cloaked person. While studying her closer I notice the sewed image of a mirror along with a V-shaped ornament on her back. What do all those symbols mean? When I´m only five steps away and the person seemingly still hasn´t noticed me I decide to call out to her: "I doubt you didn´t hear the door opening!" While my companion gives me strange looks, the stranger turns around and shows me her face. Or, at least, what´s visible of her face under the hood and above her violet scarf, like her green-silver eyes.

She then notices my companion, and says: "Midna?" _So her name is Midna I suppose._ "Hehe… What an honor to be remembered by you!" She looks to me: "This… being. Is it the one you have been looking for?" "My name is Kane!" I interrupt her while walking closer: "And I´m here to get some answers!" "Didn´t anyone ever teach you manners?" Midna interrupts me before turning back towards the woman: "You heard him, twilight princess. Hehe…" _So she is a princess?_ She lowered her head for a while, before she finally addresses me: "What answers do you seek?" "I´ll keep it quick: What is this twilight? What are those green-skinned humanoid creatures? What are those creatures with the ornamented heads and red tattoos? Do those creatures possess some kind of connection?" After some seconds she starts to answer: "It's a long story." "I have all day." "Well…" and so she starts to explain what happened.

* * *

"… the twilight covered Hyrule like a fog and without light the people turned into spirits. Inside of the twilight they live on without realizing what happened to them. All they know is fear, fear of some nameless evil." With that she ends her story, which gives me most of the answers I wanted. If she told the truth then this twilight was created by a usurper, who now rules over Hyrule. With the help of those Shadow Beasts, that's what the ornament headed creatures are called, he almost flawlessly defeated the entire standing army of Hyrule. As far as she told me, she was the leader of that army when this usurper gave her and her people a choice: surrender or die. He was wearing black robes that were decorated with white lines and reached to his feet. Above those robes he wore grey shoulder-armor, which had a strange banner attached on the front. His head was entirely covered by a big helmet that was shaped and decorated like the head of a chameleon. His voice was ringed slightly, sounding almost metallic, but that might be because of the helmet. Seeing no better choice she surrendered.

Afterwards this usurper somehow managed to cover almost the entire kingdom with twilight. Those Shadow Beasts under his command are, according to the princess, created in two different ways: The first way is when a Shadow Beast grabs someone and thrusts a black-red crystal into their head. The other way someone can be turned into a Shadow Beast is this usurper summoning a black fog that spans a great area. Anybody can be turned into a Shadow Beast with one of those ways.

Those green skinned humanoids are called Bulblin, and are known for their raids on villages, but the last raid within the kingdom lies decades in the past. They also live in a desert that is quite a way of from any major settlement of the kingdom. Since the invasion also started from there, it´s safe to assume that these Bulblins either follow his orders or fled from their home and raid anything on their way.

"The kingdom of Hyrule is drowning in twilight, but I´m still the princess", she reveals her former position in this kingdom, before she takes off the hood of her cloak. Now I´m also able to see the golden diadem, with an emerald in the middle, that rests on her head, as well as her brown hair, which is bound into two big strands in the front, reaching to her shoulders. "I am Zelda!"

"Now don´t look so sour, is permanent twilight really that bad?" Midna says, drawing our attention to her. "No dark nights! No sun that blinds you! That´s some positive stuff, don´t you think?" "And what advantages does that thick fog have?" I counter: "And I don´t think this usurper had that kind of reason alone to cover the kingdom in twilight, especially if only few people notice this." She just rolls her eyes. "Now then why don´t you tell us the reason he did what he did, I'd really like to know." Zelda looks at her with a slight glare: "While you were away, he asked for you. He gloated that his servants were searching you. Why? How does he know you?" Midna flashes her teeth and glares right back: "Don´t talk so high and mighty! Who was it that warned you from this invasion, whom you didn´t even notice was going to happen. And my past doesn´t concern you, former princess!"

"What did you say!? You…" Zelda starts, but while those two started a - in my opinion - meaningless argument I had already shifted my focus towards the objects on top of the bench. Now I´m able to see the content of the picture frame: A painted picture of the royal family. But what really grabs my attention is the title from one of the books: Geography of Hyrule. Once I open the book, I´m glad to see that my expectations were right. The book consists of maps for Hyrule and the surrounding areas. According to the maps I´m in the middle of Hyrule, while Ordon is quite some ways in the south and the so called Gerudo-Desert is located towards the far east. "What are you looking at?" I hear Zelda ask from behind me. I turn around, the book still in my hand: "Would you mind it if I borrow this for some time?" After she sees the title, she nods: "I know that book to the letter, it´s probably going to be more useful to you."

Midna was seemingly done here. While she floats towards the door she calls out: "We´re done here princess!" she turns towards me: "And you come on! We still have things to do." But before I leave I decide to share my opinion on Zelda´s decision: "Sometimes you have to choose between two evils. Choose the lesser evil and move on."

 **I´m so glad to bring out a new chapter. I wanted to publish it a lot earlier, but due to some incompetent internet providers my capability to continue the story was limited, as I lost my copy of LoZ:TP long time ago and mainly use youtube videos as a replacement to get a picture about the TP world.**

 **I also have to apologize for the slightly misleading tip in the last chapter. At first I wanted to extend the talk about the power of knowing locations, but I saw the chapter slowly becoming too long for its own good, so I had to shorten it.**

 **Hopefully this tip is more accurate: The signs that were engraved in stone begin to glow in golden light.**


	7. Chapter 6: Creating deals

When we arrived on the roof Midna suddenly stops and turns around to face me: "Now that you have your answers you´ll do as I say!" _Does she even realize what she´s asking from me?_ "I won´t jump into a bottomless pit just because you tell me to do so!" "Don´t be silly! You know what I mean! Or did you already forget what I told you?" is her irritated reply. I pause for a moment to mull over all the things she told me today. "If you´re talking about those objects I should find for you, I hope you have a clue where they are." "Of course, I wouldn´t mention it if I didn´t know where to find them" I couldn´t resist to probe further: "What do you plan on doing once I got those things for you?" She sighs. "How many times do I have to tell you that that's none of your busi-" "It is my business! I would really like to hear some good reasons why I should help you, instead of ending this rule of terror right here." I turn around and look at the main tower of the castle where this usurper probably sat on the throne. Her answer is hysterical laughter followed by another insult: "Listen, you idiot! Do you really think you can just walk up to him and drive a sword through his chest? You would be turned into a shadow-beast before you are anywhere near him!" she continues: "And even if you could somehow get close to him: He is the one who created all those portals. You couldn´t kill him because…"

I turn around to look at her, even as I finish her sentence: "… because he could simply teleport away." I look her in the eye: "But you could follow him, right?" She crosses her arms, a small grin tugs on the corners of her mouth: "Yes, but do I have to?" "Are those things really that important?!" "If you consider the future of your world as important, then yes." Almost as an afterthought she adds: "By the way it's called warping. Teleportation is something else." _My world?_ Without noticing she just told me two things: She only observed me since today and she clearly wasn´t born in Hyrule. "I hope it has nothing to do with spiritual self-discovery or anything along those lines." She covers her face with a hand. "No," she starts to giggle "it's nothing along those lines." Knowing that it´s a physical object she is looking for, I tell her about my demands: "I will help you search. But only under three conditions." She hesitates for a moment, while glaring at me, before she speaks: "You are in no position to make demands." Before I can say anything in response she continues: "I will listen to them. But don´t expect too much from me, light dweller."

With her agreeing to hear me out I start: "First: You are able to defend yourself. I can´t protect you all the time." "It´s probably going to be the exact opposite" "Second: I will only look for this thing if we have a clue what it is." "I already told you, I will tell you what you need to know when the time is right." "Third: Whenever I need it you will carry my equipment and warp me to where I tell you to." "Forget it! Do I look like a mule?" "Of course, it would only be the things that are going to bother me during a fight." I lift my arm: "Like this book." "Why did you even take it if it's going to get in the way during a fight?" "I am not familiar with Hyrule. So before I get lost or end up running in circles, I much rather look up the maps in this book here." "Are you saying that you are unfamiliar with country you were born?" "This isn´t the country I was born." "Oh sure… Your interest in the wellbeing of this kingdom is a simple act of kindness, right?" she floats a bit upwards, to look down on me: "You can´t fool me! You lived your entire life in that little village and never set one foot out of it. That´s the reason you need that book. You were too scared to leave your village." _Is she serious?!_

"You should work on your deduction skills." "Excuse me?!" "It´s rather unlikely that a single farmer was able to kill a shadow beast, something an entire army failed to do. Even if my equipment is a rather odd mix: isn´t it strange that I´m the only one who wears it?" "That only means that you aren´t from that village," she interrupts me "but it doesn´t prove that you aren´t born in Hyrule! I´m sure there are other kingdoms! Why would you care what happens here in Hyrule?" "That´s true, but my code forces me to help." She raises an eyebrow: "You want to tell me that you are risking your life because of a code?" I was about to respond when I remembered that we still had things to do: "I would really like to continue this discussion, but I´m afraid we are losing focus of what we need to do. So do you accept my conditions or not?" She raises a hand to her chin and looks like she thinking about it. After a while she sighs followed by a "Give it to me" after that she rips the book out of my hand. That´s answer enough I suppose. "So, where do start with our search?" She only says: "By the spring of the Light Spirit of course." _Light Spirit? Something like that exists…_

* * *

 _...for real?!_ I stand in front of a spring, to be more specific in front of a giant glowing sphere. " _Why so serious?_ " I look around trying to find the source of the voice, even if it sounded like it came from everywhere at once. "What are you doing?" I look towards Midna: "Didn´t you hear that voice?" She looks at me curiously: "What voice? What are you talking about?" "So you didn´t hear anything. Must have been my imagination." I look back towards the glowing sphere: "What is that sphere there anyway?" "Why don´t you try to connect the dots?" "That´s supposed to be a Light Spirit?!" She rolls her eye: "You really try hard to pretend you don´t know a thing." "Cut to the point already!" She points to the Sphere: "Do you see that hand? Destroy it! Once that is done you should be able to see the Light Spirit." Even while I start to wonder how she knows all this, I form the Dragonrider´s Halberd. Then I remember something important: "Those bandits that kidnapped the children: Do you know where they warped?" "We wouldn´t use those portals if everyone knew where we went to." "I see…" After I stabbed the fingers multiple times, without doing much damage, red lines appear on the hand. The lines start to glow intense while the hand lets go of the sphere on its own.

While the hand floats into the air, I imagine the Sacred Chime Hammer that was used by Velstadt, in preparation for an attack. "Are you serious?!" Midna calls out from behind me. The hand forms a fist before it drops onto me. I swing the hammer and hit the side of the fist sending it into one of the walls surrounding the spring. I use the chance to perform a jump attack and manage to crush a finger of my opponent. The hand manages to recover and launches a counterattack. As it tries to grab me I roll to the left. The hand, yet again curled into a fist, flies towards me. I make multiple steps to the side while I rotate around my own axis in preparation for my next attack. All the while my arm was extended so that the hammer would collide with the fist. _**Donggggg!**_

I can feel the pressure that travels through my arm from the collision of our attacks, but it was nothing compared to the forces I blocked or parried during my travels. My opponent wasn´t that robust and as a result broke apart into many pieces. The parts float towards the sphere; there they vaporize like drops of water on a hot stone. I wait for something to happen, but it looks like that nothing interesting would occur.

That's what I thought. Suddenly I hear a voice: "Stranger…" It´s not the same voice, as the one that I heard earlier. This voice comes from a step of the spring, were a small amount of weakly glowing, small spheres were hovering above the water. They were surrounding a sphere roughly as big as my head. "Come closer…" I walk cautiously towards the sphere. I suspect that this might be a Light Spirit, but I couldn´t be sure.

After I´m only an arm's length away the sphere continues talking: "Stranger, you and your companion have done great things… but the explanations have to wait. Bring me the light that you managed to save from the twilight." "Why don´t you tell me who you are first." "I am the Light Spirit, Faron. I was chosen by the three Goddesses to guard the province of Faron" "I´m Kane of Drangleic. Now concerning your request: How am I supposed to do that without suffering injury? The pieces of the hand were vaporized when they touched this ´Light´" "Raise your arm." I follow his instructions and raise my arm.

"It could sting a bit." Was the only warning I received before some of the smaller spheres float towards my arm and circle around it. Except for some little itching nothing seems amiss. Guessing what he wants me to do I walk towards the big sphere and raise my arm again. The spheres that circled around my arm stop moving as they connect themselves to the big one through some kind of lightning. Then they start moving towards the Light Spirit. Once they arrive the remaining spheres connect themselves in the same way to the big one. The big sphere starts to move towards the Light Spirit. After it arrived by the spirit both he and the sphere start to disappear into the spring. Just before the sphere completely vanishes into the water it flashes so bright that everything I can see is white.

Once the flash is over everything seems to be like always. The only difference: My artificial eye, which showed me everything that was hidden for the normal eye, saw everything like my normal eye did. "That's too bad." I hear Midna complaining behind me. When I turn my head to look what´s wrong I notice something at the edge of my vision. Guessing what happened I grab my head only to feel something metallic. I look down towards my arm and see that it too turned back to normal. I raise my arm before my face and move my fingers and turn my hand.

"Did you think the transformation was permanent?" I turn around completely and take off my mask. "I did consider it." Suddenly a shrill sound comes from the spring. I turn around to see what´s going on. The water in the spring glows in a golden light and the markings on the stones glow in a bright shade of turquoise. Suddenly a drop springs out of the water only to fall back in.

Slowly the Sphere I had to connect to the Light Spirit rises back out of the water. It floats ten meters into the air before it stops. Suddenly a silhouette appears, before it turns into a mix of different animals and latches onto the sphere. It has upwards pointing horns and its face reminds of a statue. Its body looks like that of a monkey. Its tail looks a bit like that of a squirrel, but at the end possesses a stinger like a scorpion. The tail is also longer than the main body. This causes the tip of the tail (which is vertically coiled around the spirit) to almost touch were it starts.

"So, Kane of Drangleic," it starts "what leads you to this world?"

 **Oh my god I screwed it up again. The stones glow turqoise and not golden.**

 **Another thing I recognized is that both the amounts views and visitors are very high on the first chapter and decline rapidly for each chapter onwards. I cannot help but ask myself whether the reason for that is my story not being everyone´s taste or my first chapter being awful.**

 **It could also be possible that my Dark Souls 2 - OC seems like a Gary Sue on first glance or that there is no tension because he simply curbstomps every enemy until now. I don´t really know how to change the first impression of my OC, but I assure you: he won´t become a Gary Sue. About the tension in the battles: I just can´t imagine a Dark Souls 2 - OC who managed to acquire all four crowns to have serious struggles against a shadow beast whose only big differences from the black monsters in No Man´s Wharf is the thick shield-like head and the lack of fear from light. I just don´t want to put some lame stuff like "Your magic doesn´t work in this world" or "You lost your memories and all your battle experience" just to create an equal power level. Of course, I could just send in a lowlvl character into Hyrule and be done with it, but then I could just as well make a LoZ-OC and make him an undead. As this is a "Person from world X lands in World Y" type of crossover, there will only be a few Characters from Dark Souls 2, so my OC has to take care for most of the fanservice.**

 **But don´t worry: There will be some tension with the Triforce - which can be very powerful - and the replacements for the shadow bug hunts I will create.**

 **Enough of that now, here is the next tip: About gods, moral and options.**


	8. Chapter 7: Differences

In the few days that I stayed in Ordon Village I heard a few local myths and legends as well as some rumours. The sun isn´t deep enough for it to be called sunset and yet several of those things have already been put to the test. Some of them, like the existence of Light Spirits, have been proven to be true.

Others, such as 'Light Spirits can read the minds of everyone that stands in front of their spring', were just empty rumours. "I am looking for something that can defeat the one who currently attacking this kingdom. Do you know where I could find something like that?"

The spirit starts to float around me, and studies me from head to toe. All this while I never let him out of my sight; even though the "light" is blinding me a bit. After he is done with studying me he starts to talk: "In all my time here in hyrule I have never once heard of a land called Drangleic. Tell me …" he starts to float closer to me "…what brought you here? Why did you leave your country?" "You haven´t answered my question yet." "I want to know what kind of person you are before I answer your question." "I left my country because there was nothing keeping me there. I just ended up here in hyrule by pure chance after I left the land with my ship."

"What do you mean with 'by pure chance'? And what ship?" I hesitated for a moment. Let's see if he was here when I arrived here and eavesdropped on my conversation with Link and Rusl. "The moon suddenly turned red and the wind stopped and after a short while a vortex formed beneath my ship. The last thing I saw was my ship while both it and I fell into the vortex." The Light Spirit raised an eyebrow: "When you arrived here you told a different story. Why did you tell the two that found you a lie?!" "When I arrived here I didn´t know a thing about this world. It wasn´t unlikely that they would consider my arrival as a bad omen and I simply didn´t want to make matters worse by talking about a blood red moon." "And that is reason enough to lie?" "The worst case would have been a fight between them and me. Something I wanted to prevent" "That may be true, but why should I believe you when this story sound even less likely?" "I couldn´t care less if you believe my story. What you can believe in are my deeds, those that I already performed and those that have yet to come."

He looks at me for a while: "This dark and forbidden power you are looking for is not something that I can just give you. If it falls into the wrong hands everything will be lost." After he said that, I realized something: "Could it be that the kingdom was invaded because of this power?" "I don´t know what plans this new evil has with this kingdom." "Only few people act without a reason behind their actions." He looks at me grimly: "What reason justifies the enslavement of dozens of lives? Or the destruction of all light, something that was gifted to us from the three golden goddesses?!" "From what I know about morals, not very much. Even in the worst possible situation this doesn´t looks like it´s going to lead to a positive end. By the way," I take in his size: "how were those creatures able to overwhelm you?" "As long as the usurper rules over Hyrule we Light-Spirits, who have been tasked with the protection of the people of Hyrule, can´t resist his attacks." "In other words: You Light-Spirits can´t act against him. Anyway it would be better if you told me were this power is hidden. If he is looking for it as well than me possessing this power is the lesser of two evils." "What makes you think I would simply hand it over to him without trying to resist?" "With a simple sentence: 'Tell me were the power is hidden or I will turn all humans into Shadow-Beasts.'"

He doesn´t look too happy about what I just said: "I doubt that you are the saviour you pretend to be." "Do you have other ideas?" "You can´t hide the darkness within you from me." "I am fighting to get rid of these invaders despite that darkness within me. My deeds don´t lie." "Your words do." "If you can´t believe in my words than believe in my deeds." He looks at me suspiciously: "Do you fight against the usurper so that you can get rid of that darkness." "No, that darkness is part of my personality. The reason is far simpler: I think it's the right thing to do." "But how long will you be able to say that before the darkness within you corrupts you like all those that came before you." "I know the darkness within me well enough to prevent that."

For a short while he is silent. That's when I noticed that he hadn´t addressed Midna yet. I look around but can´t find her anywhere. "Tell me…" the Light Spirit breaks is silence: "Do the people of Drangleic or any of the kingdoms you know pray to the goddesses Din, Nayru and Farore?" I hesitate for a moment and think back to my first live. I remember that religion as a somewhat sensitive subject to talk about. But I have to answer before he misinterprets my silence for something wrong: "There are a few goddesses to whom the people pray, but none of them are named Din, Nayru or Farore." "And to what god do you pray." "I don´t pray to any god." "…What?" Did you expect me to answer in a reassuring way?" "I don´t think that you converted to our golden goddesses that fast." "That´s because I didn´t" "Then you are a heretic!" The tension in the air starts to rise. I try to calm him down: "Not quite. I do believe that the gods existed. But the history books tell of a great cure that exterminated all gods. Ever since that time humanity was on its own."

"Nothing you say makes any sense!" "I know that feeling. Ever since I arrived here I received more questions than answers." After I said those words one of those questions comes to mind: "Say, before I arrived here, did you do something that could explain why I ended up here in the first place?" "No I didn´t do anything that could brought you here." "Do you know someone capable of doing something like that?" "One comes to mind: The usurper responsible for the twilight." Oh the irony. I decide to make an offer: "Listen Light-Spirit Faron: There certainly are many Secrets, differences and similarities that we could talk about, but that would take us weeks and the world won´t wait for us." "That is why I doubt you are the right one for this power." "At the moment we can´t choose our company. Since we both have the same goal it would make sense to work together. And after all is said and done we can argue with each other." "That's easy to say when you possess that power." "Is that power really so new that you don´t have any pre-emptive defences against it?" "This power is under our protection since more than hundred years, b…" "Since you had it for such a long time I´d wager you have some ways to deal with it. So even if I were to miss-use it I doubt I would come to far." He looks rather surprised, only to regains his composure after a moment. "Where did you learn to think like that?" "On a pilgrimage." He looks at me like I sprouted a second head: "You as a non-believer were on a pilgrimage?" "It wasn´t the conventional kind." Then the silence returned.

"Fine, I tell you were the power is kept: Within the forest lies a temple. There you will find a being that was corrupted by the darkness. Free it from its suffering." Before I have the chance to ask for a more detailed description on the location of the temple the Light-Spirit is covered in a bright light. Once I can see again I notice that the spirit has disappeared. As I look around I notice something that I wouldn´t have seen without my artificial eye. Midna somehow merged with my shadow. Did you hide from the Light-Spirit? I put my mask back on my face and start to walk towards the path leading into the forest.

As I walk I begin to formulate a theory why this Usurper is targeting Midna, even though she clearly has nothing to do with Hyrule: She has the abilities of an assassin and is after his head. If she really was hiding from the Light-Spirit and he truly didn´t notice her at all then this shadow-merging ability was truly a dangerous trick. After all an attack that you don´t see coming is an attack that you can´t defend against. The downside is that she needs shadows to merge with. When I think about it: while I was in that twilight-zone I didn´t possess a shadow. Maybe that is what the Usurper wanted. If this dark power truly is what Midna is looking for then it stands to reason that the Usurper has some kind of defence against this kind of ambush, which means she needs more power to defeat him. The cornerstone for this theory is that she already tried to kill him once or that he witnessed her abilities in some other way.

Once the spring is no longer visible Midna separates herself from my shadow and floats in front of my face. She looks at me with a mix between anger and confusion. She opens her mouth to say something but then simply closes it again. Instead I speak up: "Give me the book. The faster we find this dark power, the better." She pulls the book out from thin air and drops it into my waiting arms. I turn the pages until I find what I am looking for: Faron Woods. I notice two things as I look over the map: The centre of the woods connected through a tunnel with the path I am currently standing on. The other is that there is a place in the middle that is surrounded by deep clifs.

After I memorized the map I hand the book back to Midna. As I started to walk forward again I heard her speak: "Let´s see if you are just bark and no bite." "You will…" suddenly something shoots out of the ground roughly two meters in front of me. It seems to be some kind of carnivorous plant. It reaches up to my shoulders and possesses a round head, which separates in the middle to form a giant maw filled with sharp teeth. The only thing within its maw is a thick tongue that is covered in some kind of yellow, probably poisonous, slime. The, rather flexible, stem has its starting point between some rather tall grass, probably for camouflage.

While it drools on the ground I try to decide if I should use my sword or the crossbow. I decide to go with my sword. I draw my broken blade and charge forward. The plant rears its head back, before it launches itself forward, maw wide open. I drop, while still sprinting, to the ground. While its head misses my I slide directly to where its stem disappears into the ground. With a clean cut the fight is decided. As I look to where the head landed I notice that it decays extremely fast.

A small distance away I notice another plant hiding between the grasses. I take aim with my crossbow and fire a bolt into it. After the bolt hit the plant springs upward were it remained in an erect position and just like the other one, began to decay rapidly. For carnivorous plants they surely are fragile.

 _As I walk past the plant I pull out my bolt and reload my crossbow. Overweight ogres and fragile man-eating plants. No wonder that they are having trouble with those Shadow-Beasts, if that is all nature has to offer._

 **Sorry that it took so long, but I had to rework the chapter because the topics changed so rapidly that it didn´t make sense. It is baffling how hard it is to create a discussion between two characters that makes some sense.**

 **Lets just go to the next tip: Chain and hook for the deadliest enemy.**

 **Edit: Unfortunately, my editor for grammatical mistakes is on a hiatus for an unknown amount of time, so I would be very happy if someone wants to take his place until he returns. The story is already translated, so you don´t need to know german. Thank you very much.**


	9. Chapter 8: Consideration of situations

"Aaaaahhh!" Considering how loud that scream was it had to come from close-by. I pull out my crossbow and run out of the cave. There I immediately spot the source of the scream: A man with a rather big afro and a violet pot. Since he was lying on his back and looking in the other direction, I couldn´t see his face, but I was certain he was currently staring at the flesh-eating plant in front of him. Unless the ones from before, this one had a red shell with black markings, while its tongue was blue. Not that it mattered to the bolt I sent into the upper half of its shell. The force of the impact was so great that the stem of the plant gets torn apart and it is sent flying away.

As the man turns to face me I am able to get a good look at his appearance. His light- and dark blue striped pants are partly covered by a white sheet, which was held up by a yellow belt. Bound to that belt were pouches of various sizes and colors. He was wearing sandals and he was carrying that pot with a rope behind his back. His eyes are green and I can see the beginnings of a beard on his chin. When I look closer I notice that there was a bird's nest inside his afro. He was carrying a lock and the key belonging to it in his hand. At the sides of the path I notice the two halves of a gate. They were simple wooden planks that were connected to the trunks of two felled trees. Behind this gate was the entrance to a cave. On the inward facing parts of the gate were metal rings nailed to the wood, they were undoubtedly there for the lock. Considering this it's easy to see what happened here: While the man was trying to close the gate, he was surprised by the plant.

"Thank you friend." I reload my crossbow before putting it away again. "It's a bit early to call me a friend." He chuckles before standing up. "Yeah, possibly. But still thank you." As I walk towards I notice that there is a way to my left leading to a small house that was surrounded by all kinds of junk. "Say what's so dangerous about that cave that you need to lock the gate?" "Behind that cave there is a forest. Normally there is no reason to even close the gate, but recently there have been a lot of monsters. Besides that a venomous fog started to spread there as well. I don´t know where it came from but it looks really dangerous." _Luckily I still have some moss on me._ "What´s your name?" "Coro and yours?", is his swift answer before he starts to close the gate. "Kane, and maybe you should…" I get interrupted by a rustling not far from us. A quick look and I see what it is. The severed part of the plant, that should have shrivelled up and died by this point, is making its way towards us like a snake with its maw wide open.

While I draw my broken blade and move into a combat stance, Coro stumbles backwards in fright. "That's not possible!" "Apparently it is.", is my calm answer to his frightened exclamation. The plant lunges at me. I dodge with a step to the side, while switching to a reverse grip on my blade. As the plant comes closer, I move my blade into its flight path and with a horizontal slash I cut it in two. The two halves land on the ground near Coro, something that seems to bother him.

"I have to thank you yet again." He looks towards remains of the plant: "That's the first time that I see a Baba-serpent." _What a strange name._ Now that the danger is dealt with I start moving towards the cave. "Wait!" Coro´s voice stops me. "Yes?" "You really want to go through there, even though I told you what´s on the other side?" "Yes." He looks at me seriously: "Then please follow me to my house first. I can´t let you go in there without a lantern." _What help is a lantern going to be?_

Since he is walking towards the house I noticed earlier it must mean that's it is his home. Near the house, between a campfire and a small rock, Coro picks up something from the ground. From top to bottom the thing consist of a leather strap, a small reversed bowl, a strangely formed metal part with three U-shaped holes in it that was, except for the spike in the middle, completely hollow. The bottom part had multiple square holes in it. He takes the pot from his back and removes the lid. After that he uses it to pour a transparent, slightly yellow-tinted liquid into the lantern. _Oil!_ Once he is done pouring the oil he takes a burning stick from the campfire and uses it to light the lantern. "Here all done!" Is all he says as he gives me the lantern.

While inspecting the lantern I consider its uses. Even if I can use the strap to tie it to my belt, in case that I need to dodge I risk covering myself in oil and catching fire. But then I see something at the bottom of the spike that gets me thinking: Small gaps. The oil flows into those gaps till only a small bit remains. As I look more closely I notice that the bottom is removable. The oil, separated from the rest of the lamp, couldn´t spill out from there. I´m surprised that they were this inventive with something as simple as a lantern while the more important things were severally lacking in that department. Even the small bit of oil that didn´t flow through the gaps doesn´t pose a danger since it was far too gooey to spill out of the lantern even by more erratic movements. And to maintain a bright flame, with the small amount of oil that can be burned at once, the square holes make sure that the flame always receives enough air.

"Thank you!" is my answer. "There is no need to thank me. After all you saved me twice in a row." He picks up something behind the small rock. Once he arrived at my side I recognize what it is: A small bottle filled with oil. "Here take this as well." He presses the bottle into my hands. "Consider it a customer service. Next time the oil won´t be for free." "Thank you." At the corner of my vision I see something that catches my interest beneath all the garbage that surrounds his house. "What´s with all that stuff?" I point towards a pile of stuff in which I discovered a hook and an iron-chain. "If you have enough rupees you can take what you want." "Wouldn´t it be a better payment if I take care of the monster problem with this junk?" "Sorry but I don't lend stuff. Also if it helps you against those monsters it can´t be junk." "And how much would it cost?" "Pick up what you want first, then I tell you how much it will cost you."

As I arrive by the pile I kneel down so it looks like I´m picking up the hook. "My rupee. I need it back." I whisper into my shadow while being careful not to let Coro notice. Unnoticed a small hand rises out of my shadow in which the purple rupee is held. While I pick up the hook with my right hand, I use my left to put the rupee into my pouch. First I wrap the chain between my left shoulder and my right hip until a loose end is left. Afterwards I take that end, wrap it around the hook and tie it into a knot. As I pull to test its stability, my improvised construct remains intact.

"Hey what are you doing? You can break it after you paid." As answer to Coro's shout I simply throw the purple rupee in his direction. "Hey stop that. Why are you throwing stuff at…" he trails off after he realizes just what it is I threw at him. "Will that be enough?" He looks at me with an incredulous look: "Will that be enough? This is what some people earn in a week! That's way too much for what you picked up." "Consider the rest advance payment then." "And for what exactly?" _That´s something even I don´t know, but it´s always positive when people own you something._ I ignore his question: "Anyway, it´s time that I deal with our monster problem." It doesn´t look like he is quite done with our conversation: "Don´t change the topic!" "The next time I´m here you get your answer." It seems that manages to mollify him. "Fine, then till next time." "May we meet again."

* * *

No hundred feet into the cave and it´s pitch black. Well, considering the position of the sun it isn´t that surprising. Not being able to see anything is quiet dangerous, so the lantern really does come in handy. Further down I see multiple pots and small crates, some of which are attached to the celling via spider web. I look around, but I am unable to spot the responsible for this oddity. As I continue on my way I come across an obstacle that makes me wary: A giant spider web that completely blocks the way. Even though I would be able to tear it apart with my hands, the threads would stick to me. While contemplating what to do I notice a sound behind me: The sound of flapping wings. Turning around reveals the source of the noise: A bat with a hooked tail… that is flying straight towards my face.

Once he is only an elbow-length away from my face, I use my left hand to grab him from behind. Using him like a broom I manage to get rid of the web without having to touch it myself. After I removed the web I notice that something is off with the ceiling. At some point it looks like it´s made from two different materials that don´t belong together. Suddenly an eye appears, then two, five, eight. I try to grab my crossbow but before I can even reach it the part of the ceiling with the eyes falls down and beneath the eyes a mouth with two fangs on the sides becomes visible. I dodge backwards and throw the bat which was still clutched in my left hand away.

When I saw the net I knew it had to be a giant spider. What I hadn´t expected was that the color of the spider had adapted so well to its surroundings, especially since the cave was so dark, that without a source of light it would have been impossible to see the spider even without the camouflage. _Apparently the dangerous side of nature here relies on cunning instead of brute force. I need to keep my guard up from now on._ The spider raises its front legs in the air and gives me a nice look of its poison-dripping fangs.

While they may be cunning, their lack of aggressive behaviour prevents them from being a real threat to me. If all of them give enough time after their surprise attack to shoot them with my crossbow, I can kill them without risking to get injured. Of course I still need to be careful, after all an attack I don´t see coming is one I can´t defend against.

Luckily for me the spider lies on its back so that the end of the bolt I shot is visible. With my foot on its body I yank the bolt free and load it back into the crossbow. "I don´t want to tell you how to fight, but why are you mainly using your crossbow to attack? You could kill them faster if you were to attack with a sword." "I don´t underestimate my enemies." "That´s nice and all. But isn´t that a bit too much against such primitive foes?" "It doesn´t matter if they are primitive or not: If they are cunning enough to hide themselves using the right surroundings then they most likely still have a few more tricks in their sleeves." "And just because of that assumption you´re going to act all paranoid whenever we encounter a new enemy?" "Didn´t you notice the poison dripping from its fangs?" "And you don´t have any antidote?" "I have some, but only a limited number." "I was wondering what you had planned for that poisonous fog." "Nice to know that you are concerned about my safety." "Don´t get cocky! I am only interested in that power. Don´t you forget it." "I haven´t forgotten anything in a long time. But once I did my part I expect you to do yours." "Don´t worry: I keep my promises. On that note: why did you buy that piece of junk?"

I don´t have to think hard to know what she means with junk: The Chain that is diagonally wrapped from my left shoulder to my right hip. The hook is simply hooked into one of the chain links. "Since I can´t float like you I need a different way to safe myself from deep drops." "If you are careful you won´t fall down." "Big words from someone who doesn´t need to worry about something like that." "Hmph. Anyone knowledgeable in the magic of the twilight can float with ease." "What can´t be done with ease if you know how to do it?" "This is getting ridiculous. Focus on your mission." And with that she ends our conversation and disappears back into my shadow.

 **Phew, it´s been a long time... OK OK I´m sorry.**

 **There were two reasons why it took so long for the translation: First I had a lot of issues in real life to deal with. Second my corrector is gone for an unknown amount of time and I waited for him in vain until I decided I had enough of waiting.**

 **If anyone wants to be the new corrector let me know it.**

 **That aside, I feel that since LoZ: A Link between Worlds, I have a better understanding of the Triforce, but what I don´t know is what happens to the power of the triforce when its bearer dies. Does it go to the murderer, will it randomly choose one living being or does it stay on the corpse? I don´t want to be pitchforked because i unintendendly changed the way the Triforce works.**

 **Next tip: Fire can purge everything.**


	10. Chapter 9: The rotten forest

As I leave the cave I find myself in a large forest area. Most of the ground is covered in a purple fog. Since it seems to form a circle, the origin of this fog is probably right in the middle of it. Looking at the condition of the plants that come into contact with it, it´s safe to assume that this fog is something abnormal. Another oddity are the fog free spots strewn about that shouldn´t be possible. There the sunlight manages to break through the trees and due this observation it's reasonable to assume that the fog stays clear of light. To confirm this I approach the fog with my lantern and it indeed forms a small circle around me, roughly three meters in distance.

"Midna, are you safe from the poison while hiding in my shadow?" "Yes. And don´t bother asking, it would take too long to explain." "I know what hexes are." "It's shadow-magic, not hexes. Whatever that's supposed to be?" "Hexes are all forms of magic using the element of darkness." "Aha. Good for you." "Well as long as what you told me is true we can continue." "Just get going already!"

With the lantern fastened to my belt, broken blade in my right hand and hook in my left I march through the fog. The ground beneath my feet is covered with rotting brown grass. Even the flesh-eating plants aren´t spared from this fate. Since there are no signs of a fight I suppose the poison ended them.

I´m roughly fifty meter away from the centre of the fog when I hear something akin to slurping. I move carefully towards where the sound is coming from. The slurping is joined by rustling. After a while I can make out a faint silhouette of a man sized vase. Suddenly the rustling stops and only the slurping remains. I stop and stand completely still, not making the slightest sound and focusing my senses as best I can. Whatever it is, it´s possible it noticed me.

After a few seconds of nothing happening I decide to continue forward. As I walk I always make sure to be in a position to dodge to the side. The shape slowly gets clearer. The upper part consists of blood stained teeth that sit on top of a yellow knee-high plate. The lower half is brown and except for the upper part shaped like an orb. Since the teeth are surrounding the upper part like a crown and the creature expels the fog upwards, the mouth is there in the middle.

Behind this thing I see something else in the fog. It's an almost house-high pillar with a pot closed by lid on top of it. But as pot and lid separate and in doing so create the slurping sound from before, this thing shows itself to be another part of whatever this creature is.

I´m only five meter away when the second mouth moves out from the cover of the gas. The head is a red-violet coloured combination of a flesh-eating plant and a pelican beak. It´s decorated with yellow stripes and the pillar is in reality its neck, which is a thorn covered stem.

It positions itself over the first mouth and opens its jaws to drop a pile of corpses into the waiting mouth. The lips of the thing close immediately even though they were an arm's length apart before. The second maw opens a bit and seems to sniff the air. It is either going to notice me now or I get lucky and it fails to realize I´m here until it's already too late. Unfortunately it seems the first case has occurred since it turns towards me and lifts itself to its full height in a show of intimidation. Considering how high up the head is I guess its neck is at least four meter long.

Luckily I have the advantage in terms of reach. I reach for my crossbow, yet again. But this time something is different: The second maw, at which I was aiming, hides itself behind the round main body to get out of my line of sight. _How is this possible?_ I suddenly realize my error: The bolt is still covered in the blood and secretion of its previous victims.

I circle around the main body to find the other mouth, when I hear the sound of wood cracking. _Another ambush!?_ From my position I can see where the neck connects with the main body, but the maw itself can´t be seen through all this fog. The only hint I have at what it could be planning is the sound of cracking wood. Since it knows what my crossbow is, it´s quite possible that it is currently working on a counter, which is why I holster it and reach for my hook.

Shortly afterwards my suspicion is proven correct: The second mouth returns with a rotten tree trunk between its teeth. The trunk is thick enough to completely hide its head. It's holding the trunk upright for a vertical smash. The trunk itself isn´t hard to dodge, but the twigs at its end are close together and could turn into shrapnel when the tree impacts the ground. But there are fundamental laws in this world no one can ignore. One of those laws says that when an object moves in a circular motion, the greatest force is at the point furthest removed from the position around which the object circles.

Going by that logic, the least amount of force is at that position, as such I sprint directly towards the mouth. I duck under the trunk and roll so as not to lose momentum. At the same time I put distance between myself and the point of impact, where dirt and splinters are flying through the air. While it still tries to lift the trunk for another swing, I already positioned myself directly under it.

It´s too far up for me to reach it with my blade, so I throw my hook in the gap between its teeth and the trunk. Once it stuck I pull at the chain down. It tries to move its head up but the weight of the tree now works to my advantage. After a short tug-of-war it was eye level with me and I start stabbing my blade into the point where neck meets head. It trashes around in pain but is incapable to escape from me. That changes when it lets go of the trunk.

Now even the weight of my armor can´t prevent me from being lifted of the ground. Since I currently had no foothold I tried to climb up the chain to continue my attack. "Tree!" sounds Midnas warning. As I look around I see the tree she meant: The exact same tree I´m currently swinging towards to. So I slide down the chain and prepare myself for my impact with the ground. I put away my blade and cover my head with my arms. All the while I try to get the chain taut again. After a short moment I´m back in the air. That's when the middle of the chain collides with the tree and I start swinging around it.

I circle the tree once before I can hold onto it. I pull my katana, sheath included, from my belt and drive it through the chain link at the end and another one directly there where the chain started winding around the tree. Afterwards I fall towards the ground. As I roll on the ground I can hear and see the mouth´s futile tries to free itself from the chain. But the only thing it manages is to drive the hook further into its flesh while my katana keeps the chain in place. _Try as much as you want: A sheath of hardened magnet stone won´t break so easily._ With my broken blade in my right I sprint towards the maw to finally put it down.

But to get to the place where I had already injured it I first had to get up. So I jump up and grab a hold of the chain and pull myself up. Afterwards it´s only a few steps and a jump and I am close enough to reach for its neck. The mouth didn´t make it hard for me either, as it permanently keeps the chain taut with its pulling. I use my free limbs to latch on to its neck and start attacking the injured spot with the blade in my right. It trashes like its life depends on it – which it does – but my grip on its neck doesn´t loosen and gravity won´t help it this time either.

It throws its head left and right, up and down in an attempt to get rid of me. But in the end the battle ends with me slashing through the last bit of its neck. I fall together with the severed head towards the ground and soften my impact by rolling forward. While the severed head starts rotting, the neck still continues to twitch, like it didn´t want to accept what just happened. The main mouth on the other hand opens as wide as it can and releases even more fog than before. Quite futile since I still have my lantern.

The first thing I do is to recover my katana and the chain, hook included. Then, with my blade in hand, I stalk closer towards the main body. Three meter away I discover one of its roots on the ground, which I immediately stab with my blade. Out of the wound comes a purple liquid that erodes the already rotten ground to the point were only dry earth remains. That means if I continue with this tactic, a good part of this forest will be turned into a wasteland. Instead I try something different: I pour a bit of oil over the poisonous substance and light it with my lantern on fire.

The result is surprising: The fire consumes the poison like its dry straw. After a short while the fire fizzles out rather quickly and only a puddle of water is left. "Interesting idea with the fire, but next time you try something like this you should remember that you could just as easily start a forest fire." I turn my head to look her in the eye. "This part of the forest is so rotten that the fire wouldn´t have spread very far even without the water. While we´re on the subject…" I look back to the puddle on the ground: "This is the first time that I see water being corrupted by darkness." "Heh. You humans all think that everything you don´t understand is dark magic, instead of trying to figure out what´s really going on." "Then please enlighten me." "You aren´t completely wrong with the darkness part, this being was corrupted by darkness. But the poison is not. It´s simply a side effect caused by the creature changing."

"A darkness that can change a being completely. That sounds familiar.", is my answer to her explanation, even if I know it's not quite the same. "Don´t you dare to compare is filthy darkness with the true twilight." Her face contorts with hatred: "It's merely the product of this power hungry para…" She covers her mouth out of to stop herself, but by then it's already too late. Out of those few words I can conclude a few things: 1. Midna truly feels only hate for this Usurper, which means the possibility of her being a spy is practically inexistent. 2. The thing motivating the Usurper is the desire for more power and that makes it quite possibly that he is looking for this dark power as well. 3. Her definition of darkness is different than mine, because for me, darkness is the corrupted dark. "Control your emotions. Unchecked emotions can cause trouble." She bites her lips: "I know."

I resume my walk towards the main body, while putting a bit of oil into my mouth. As I arrive in front of it I pour half of the oil in my bottle into its mouth while making sure to cover its lips as well. It groans as though it wouldn´t like the taste of oil. I put my bottle away and lift my lantern in front of my face. I spit the oil in my mouth through the flame of the lantern which causes a stream of fire. This fire-stream hits the oil covered lips whom ignite the rest of the oil inside the body. It screams in despair at its painful end, but it gave me no choice. It took precautions to stay alive longer, and as such it has to suffer longer.

Thanks to the fire, the fog in the air dissolves and I can finally see things further away again. After a quick look around I find my target: A bridge leading to the temple. I can´t see the place in front of the bridge since my view is blocked by hills and trees, but to my right I can make out a path that could lead to the bridge, if it makes a turn to the left. A last look to the second mouth still lying on the ground to make sure it won´t come after me like those other plants from before reveals that it´s still not even twitching. With that I make my way towards the dirt path and leave this rotting forest behind me.

 **I didn´t really think that I would need so much text for a battle against a plant with two mouths. At first I intented to put in an additional battle.**

 **Whatever, I can deal with creating a miniboss. Could be worse.**

 **Again I want to ask my readers if some of you are well versed in the Zelda-universe so I can get a deeper insight when it comes to the triforce and its bearers.**

 **Another thing I want to tell you is that after each chapter, I will revisit an old one to purge it from possible contradictions. Doesn´t need to be big a small purge will be mostly enough.**

 **To the next tip: The blood of fools who don´t know their place.**


	11. Chapter 10: Negotiations

The path became more and more narrow, but in the end, it led me into a large field, which was, except for my left side, surrounded by steep hills. Besides the path to my left there was something else that caught my attention: Two humanoid, blue-violet beings, that stood over a beat-up monkey. The monkey had a grey mane, while its chest hair was white. The two things above it had a gaunt upper body, a face like a gargoyle and ears as long as half my arm. They had white hair formed into dreadlocks that where pulled back into a ponytail. They had green eyes and blue tongues. Their clothing consisted of simple leather pants, a bad, sandals and wrappings around their forearms. Both of them posses crude wooden swords.

"Tasty meat. Tribe will be happy." "First gutting. Then roasting. Then seasoning." From my shadow I hear a familiar voice: "Aren´t you going to do anything against that?" I respond without looking away. "Why should only humans be allowed to hunt animals?" "Going by their looks I doubt animals are the only thing they´re eating." I send her a look: "And you think I will judge them on appearances?" "Of course, that´s how you humans always do it. Whenever you see something you don´t know…" "we react with a combination of wariness, curiosity and disgust." "If it were only that it would be bearable." I chuckle lightly: "You really must be desperate to still work with a human."

That last sentence obviously irritated her, but before we can continue I hear footsteps approaching. I look forward to see the two humanoid beings looking at me. "Look. Lost human." "You here? Alone?" I send them a questioning gaze: "Do you need something?" but I was promptly ignored. "Much stuff. Nothing beneath." "Maybe hiding. Portly belly underneath." The one to my right says as he slowly comes closer. "Maybe fat noble. Feeds tribe for days."

Both raise their weapon, this causes me to reach for my own. "Not a step closer, or you lose your heads." Despite speaking like small children, they still get the meaning of my threat. They stop in their tracks and lower their weapons slightly. This tense situation lasts for a few seconds before I turn away and continue on my way. "Enjoy your meal." I say as I walk past them.

Further ahead is the bridge leading to the temple. But something is off: In front of the entrance I can see smoke rising into the air. That wouldn´t be so bad if the two beings weren´t following me while dragging the monkey behind them and always making sure to keep a certain distance between us. _Let me guess: There tribe is living in front of the temple entrance._ "Do you really think its smart to turn your back to them?" "According to the noise of their footsteps both are three meters behind me while the one on the left is dragging the monkey." From the safety of my shadow she controls the accuracy of my guess before whispering to me again: "Even so they will block your escape route should something bad happen when we reach that fireplace." "Before I start to worry, something that makes me use my other weapons would need to appear." "Don´t be cocky!" "I´m not." "Ok…"

Once I´m halfway across the bridge it becomes clear that my earlier thoughts were spot on. Ten of those creatures currently following me are in front of the entrance. A few are working on their wooden weapons with small, sharp-looking stones. Others use similar stones to cut off the meat of a normal-sized, boar. Another two are trying to keep the fire alive. But out of all of them only one really stands out: He wears the skin of a fox like a cape with hood and is in possession of an old used saber that was probably stolen quite a while ago.

Once I arrive at their camp I feel the tension rising as most of them look at me. "What want, human?" "I guess you are the leader." "What want?" he repeats his earlier question with a lot more irritation. I point at the entrance behind him: "I want to go in there." He and his underlings laugh at my request. "Go away, human. Sacred place of ours. No humans passes through." _Maybe it has something to do with so corrupted creatures?_ "Do you have any problems in there? Maybe I could help" He points his weapon at me and growls. "You the problem. Servant of light. Trying to destroy new age!"

Like a signal was given all others stop what they were doing and start surrounding me. They are either carrying their wooden weapons or their stone tools. "Who told you that story?" was my attempt settle this situation with diplomacy. "He threatened us!" one of the two who have been following me shouted. "Wanted to take our heads!" "But only because…" is as far as I come before the leader swung his weapon in my direction. _So much to diplomacy._

I catch his arm by the wrist and use my left to punch his elbow inwards. The sound of his bones breaking and the sword hitting the floor is overshadowed by his painfilled screams. As I look around I notice one of them trying to stab me in the back. I turn to the side and swat his arm away. I grab his throat and with my thumb I press his larynx in his throat while my other hand goes for my crossbow. On my left side one of them swings his wooden weapon at me. I parry it and throw the one still in my hand at him.

Now that my hand is free I draw my broken blade, while firing a bolt into the head of another attacker and kick his stumbling body away. I put the crossbow away and cut the wrist of someone who tried to gut me with their stone knife, afterwards I jam the blade through his chin and into his brain. From behind me another one tries its luck only for me to turn around and deliver a jumping knee to his jaw.

For the first time since I arrived in this world I drew Eleum-Loyce and stab her through the heart of an opponent that tried to flee. It seems he wasn´t the only one who wants to run away, except for the leader the remaining seven look hesitant to approach me. But as one of them tries to retreat towards the temple the leader cuts of his head, saber held in his uninjured hand. "Else wants run?!" His shout was enough to get the remaining fighters to regain their courage and they try to surround me again.

The difference to before is that their leader, by his show of force, gave them a weakness: Dependency. Their courage will only last as long as he lives. If he dies so too will their moral and I can continue on my way. I allow them to surround me so that only two of them stand between me and the leader. I make sure to look as if I´m paying more attention to the ones that stand opposite of my two targets so as to lure them into attacking me. Like a fish one of them takes the bait: He ducks low while moving towards me to strike at my leg.

I jump over his blade and rush past him towards the leader. The other one rears his arm back for an attack but merely receives an uppercut for his trouble. The force of my blow throws him directly into his leader bringing both to the floor in a heap. Before they can try to untangle themselves, I was already upon them, both blades held in a reverse grip I ram them through one of them each. I pull my weapons free and use Eleum-Loyce to behead the leader and toss his head towards the remainders of the tribe.

"So, lets try again with diplomacy. Who is the successor?" Half of them try to run away but a bolt into the chest of the fastest one stops them in their tracks. "Who said you could leave?" I ask while reloading my crossbow. "I ask again: Who is his successor?" The second to my right steps forward. "I Chieftain." "Congratulations. Now take me the centre of that temple." "No human-scum allowed…" with a bolt in his left eye he falls to the ground twitching a bit. In the faces of the others their despair is clearly visible, one of them even starts crying. A few of them look over their shoulders, clearly with thoughts of trying to run again, but me levelling my crossbow at them makes them reconsider. "Who is Chieftain now?"

They hesitate, clearly due the fate of previous Chieftains. Even I tense, but that has more to do with the shadowy figure behind than the tension in the air. "What are you doing? Just go into the temple." "You don´t honestly believe that they didn´t place traps in there." "With your interrogation method the only thing that will change is the amount of bodies." "I try one more time. If that doesn´t work I´ll do as you say and go in there." "I would like it if we didn´t waste more time on these guys."

Just before I decide to shoot one of them again for their hesitation, the first to my right steps forward. Like the others his eyes are filled with despair. I put my crossbow away but keep my blade drawn. "Now listen closely," I step up to him and put my free hand on his shoulder "every being is driven by its desires and I´m no exception. My desire is to find the corrupting influence in that temple and destroy it. I´m certain you know what I am talking about and that you lined the way to with traps." "Fool! You can´t kill divine being. We only die if we lead you to it." "Since you attacked me and know about me, killing you would be in my best interest. Except …" I pause for a bit before pointing towards the entrance: "… you lead me to that ´divine´ being without leading me into a trap."

Suddenly I hear the leaves of a tree behind me rustle. I spin the newest chieftain around and warp the arm holding the blade around him, while my free arm goes for the crossbow and loosens a shot towards the sound. Only a moment later something falls out of the tree: A white haired gorilla. Once he hits the ground something drops from his head and twitches on the ground. It seems to be an insect, which had my bolt stuck in its back, apparently without piercing all the way through. _I don´t know who is luckier: Me with my marksmanship or the gorilla._

"A slave Diababas!" My meat shield shouts. "Diababa?" "She seen us! She enslave our heads!" "Ah, that's how it is." I put the pieces together while shoving the newly elected leader forwards: "This isn´t just any old monster, but breeder of parasites." I look to the other tribe members. "Go to your boss!" I don´t even have to point my crossbow at them. "What you planning?" I put my weapons away. "What are going to do now chieftain? Are you going to lead the exterminator to the parasite…" My hand reaches for the Bewitched Alonne Sword, as I tell him his second option: "or are you and your underlings going to stand in row so that I can finish this with a single swing? I give you ten seconds to decide. After that I will make the choice for you. 10!"

He looks at me defiantly. "9!" But as he looks to his underlings all he finds is the same begging expression. "8!" It´s clear that they want to live. "7!" They don´t want to forfeit their lives for their ´sacred grounds´. "6!" He clearly sees what his people want. "5!" This revelation gets to him, if only for a moment. "4!" He looks back to me, no trace of defiance to be found. "3!" "You sure you can kill Diababa?" "It doesn´t matter if Diababa is made out of flesh or steel, as big as a tower or leading a army: I´ve seen everything! I´ve killed everything!"

"So it be exterminator. We bring you to Diababa." I point to the temple: "Then lead the way." He looks at me one last time before moving his subordinates behind him. "You know you could have started with the countdown." The shadow behind my back whispers. "Well whatever. Are you ready, exterminator? Hehehe…" "First I have to get to Diababa, but yes I am ready." "Good."

As I enter the temple I hear something running away behind me. When I turn around I see the gorilla fleeing into the forest, which cases me to see his hairless bink ass in all its glory. _Really now?!_ I shake my head and step into the temple.

 **I don´t know what I should say anymore, so I think I´ll just wish you had fun at reading my story.**

 **Tip: An element to purify corruption.**


End file.
